Attack on Titan: Another Path - Arc I (OLD VERSION)
by Maryenne042
Summary: OUTDATED VERSION! NEW ONE WILL BE POSTED SOON! A Hardcore Modern AU - Not just their technology was upgraded, everything else was. This AU takes the same lore base as the canon, but it's a new story. Prepare for more hardcore battles, intense social conflicts, the triple of lore details and teenager Levi (19) taking care of the three little orphans of Shiganshina (9-8).
1. Chap 1,1:For you, 2000 years on the past

The wind is quiet, and the sun is harsh. In the middle of a dense forest with trees towering higher than large buildings, thick, heavy, and quick footsteps cause the ground to shake, scaring away any and every life form.

Accompanying it, the sound of heavy pressurized air: four humans each sport a pair of airborne propelling machines attached to their thighs, more than half their size, and a pair of neon-blue bladed swords. All four of them follow the fourteen-meter skinless feminine figure, which runs seemingly endlessly from them.

A pair of hooks, shoot from the equipment on their waists, launches them from tree to tree, the apparatus which keeps them gliding so fluidly that they look like free-flying birds. Such long, sleek devices, designed in neon-blue and white patterns, draw the shape of wings that create an actual appearance of birds from a distance. They move in all directions and allow the people to drive forward.

The woman, who possesses short, black hair and a red scarf, twists toward a tree, fixes a grapple at the top of it and uses her momentum to swing around her obstacle in a horizontal position, her impact-adapted eight-wheeled roller blades granting her to do so. Three other men follow her lead when they approach the tree.

A dark haze form as result of their gas-powered equipment.  
At the highest and farthest position of the group, the man of short, light blond hair speaks through the communication device each member has on their right ears, " _Big Dude to Devil! The haze is working! We're making her run in circles! The formation pendular cross C starts on your signal! Over!_ "

The creature's eyes start to itch due to the dark haze, an advantage the group has because they wear goggles to protect their vision.

The smallest man at the front-most position, the leader, replies, " _Roger! Wizard with me on the front! Go right! Brutus on the middle! Out!_ "

In opposite directions, the leader and the woman advance towards the creature, which is slowing down and can't keep its eyes open. By using this breach, the two can get into position. They fix their hooks on the trees near the creature, free-falling in its direction. When they near the ground, they release a considerable amount of gas, making them make a pendular move in the course of their target's knees. Their high speeds and swords slice through the tendon supporting the giant, which causes it collapse to the ground. Meanwhile, the dark brown-haired man, the biggest among them, releases a string of gas from the machines to take him higher than the trees. From there, he can aim at the creature's weak spot: the back of its neck.

He shoots himself forward, pointing his swords at the weak spot; with a maniacal smile, he screams, " _Ha ha ha ha ha! It's time... for you... TO PAY!_ "

 _ **Many years before...**_

In a wide-open area, a dense fog accompanies the intense rain. Soldiers carrying winged emblems on their backs struggle with their horses to find an escape from this desperate scenario. Screams of panic echo from every direction as the iron smell of blood take the area. As the rain simmers, from far in the fog, insane screams fill the air for several minutes.

The skies are bright, illuminated by perpetual lightning, and the crack of thunder takes the place of the screams. Far inside the fog, a large animal roars louder than the thunderclap. The raging storm ends as the roaring does.

When the fog starts to dissipate, a cry from a young soldier disrupts the otherwise pure silence, and countless corpses, both human and gigantic, are revealed. Only the crying young soldier stands in the middle of them.

 _ **Shiganshina City - Year 207 After Walls - 9:00 A.M.**_

Inside the walls that protect humanity from monstrosities called Titans, there's the peaceful city of Shinganshina, one of the eight perimetric centers around Wall Maria, the last barrier that separates humans from Titans.

It's a warm day with a gentle breeze, no clouds in the sky. At a park, under a huge tree, a nine-year-old boy awakens, scared, from a nightmare. By his side, a girl of the same age looks at him with an expression which says, "Here we go again."

She crosses her arms and asks the boy, _"Let me guess... a nightmare with Titans... again?"_

Embarrassed, he shouts at her, _"Don't look at me like that, Mikasa!"_

Even though Mikasa already knows the answer. She continues to stare at Eren with her arms still crossed, waiting for him to answer. _"Were you or not?"_

Looking away, blushing from embarrassment, he answers in a low voice, _"Yes..."_

Mikasa leaps to her feet and angrily put her hands on her waist. _"It's just like Carla-san said, Eren! You watch those conspiracy videos on the Internet and end up dreaming about them. I'm gonna tell her!"_

When Mikasa turns to leave, Eren jumps to get up and clambers after Mikasa. _"No! Please! Don't tell my mom! She will take away my internet again!"_

Mikasa slowly turns to him with a mean smile on her face. " _I won't tell if you give me your dessert after lunch today."_

She watches as the boy's eyes widen; an expression of disbelief plastered on his face. She then extends a hand to him. " _Deal?"_

Eren doesn't like her proposal, so he takes a few seconds to think. Then he shakes her hand with a grumpy face. " _Deal."_

Mikasa happily bounces now that she gained an extra dessert.

They leave the park when suddenly, she turns to him. _"We need to get the apples Carla-san asked us to buy!"_

A shudder creeps down Eren's back at what she said. He puts his hand on his head. _"Oh, yeah, I knew I was forgetting something!"_

A cruel smile aimed at him, Mikasa says with a mocking tone, _"Of course, you didn't. You just think about Titans!"_

Eren glares at her, but she breaks down in laughter when she sees his expression.

 ** _Half an hour later..._**

In a yard lined with apple trees, Eren is climbing the highest one, already on the top branches. Every time he grabs a sweet apple, he tosses it below him to Mikasa, who catches it in a basket. She counts how many apples he already got.

Then she calls to him, _"Just one more!"_

He then starts to descend carefully, but at the tip of a lower branch, he sees a shiny, big apple. Although the limb is noticeably too weak to support his weight, he goes for it anyway. Going towards it, he hangs on, but Mikasa notices the path's instability.

 _"EREN! The branch is to-"_ She cannot finish the sentence when the wood break, which lets Eren fall to the ground with a loud noise. _"Too thin..."_

The ruckus alerts the owner of the place, an old man, who desperately runs to check the yard. Stoic, Mikasa tries to calm the old man.

 _"Don't worry, sir, it's not the first time he's fallen like this."_

The old man is incredulous about the girl's calmness. _"B-but...he..."_

Eren gets up as if nothing happened. _"Don't worry, Steve-san! I'm fine! A little sore... but nothing serious."_

Still holding the broken branch, he then points the tip to Mikasa. She picks the apple.

After they pay for and receive the fruit in two paper bags, the kids leave and ascend a hill on their way home.

Eren starts to rub his right shoulder, disgruntled.  
Mikasa, looking suspicious to him, asks, _"Did you hurt your shoulder?"_

Eren is not surprised she noticed he's hurt. _"Yeah... I fell on it."_

She takes a deep breath and looks at his shoulder, which has turned red and swelled. _"You know... it will turn purple soon."_

Eren worries about that, and sadly, he pleads, _"Please, don't tell my mom."_

Mikasa feels the same, but she smiles at him. _"I won't, don't worry. If I told your mom about everything I see you doing, she would never let you leave the house again,"_ she giggles.

He smiles back at her. _"Hehehe, you're right! Thanks!"_

Suddenly, the south end of the city echoes with ringing bells, a phenomenon which fills the children with joy. Eren grabs her hand and drags her as he darts off. _"Let's go, Mikasa! The heroes are back!"_

Mikasa tries to wriggle out of his grip. _"Hey! You don't need to drag me! I want to see them as well!"_

 _ **Shinganshina South Gate - 10:28 A.M.**_

At the perimeter of each wall, there are gates which allow passage between the territories within to Wall Maria and to the exterior beyond. Guarding those gates are eight closed cities protected by the walls themselves which work as intermediaries between the lands. If one wants to cross to another wall territory, that person must pass through one of these cities by use of train lines. No one goes out beyond Wall Maria; except a specific group of people.

There's a particular military division which is allowed to go into the Titan's territory: **The Survey Corps** , nicknamed "The Wings of Freedom" by its internet fans due to their insignia and one of their objectives: mapping the outside of the walls.  
However, this job is seen as suicidal by a significant part of the population, because of the high percentage of deaths from each mission.

At the end of Shinganshina Avenue lies the rustic, colossal rock gate which leads to the outside. There's a small crowd at the sides, waiting for the entrance to rise. Eren and Mikasa run to a part of the crowd less concentrated. Once they get there, they are surprised to see a boy their age.

Eren says, _"Armin! You're already here?"_

Armin turns to them, surprised. _"No, actually… you two are late. Where have you been?"_

While Eren is trying to take a breath, he answers, _"We... huu huu... went to buy some apples... huu huu... for my mom."_

A loud alarm rings and the gate slowly starts to open, allowing a strong wind to blow from the outside. Then, soldiers enter through the gate, some on foot and other on their horses, but most of whom carry some machine it consists of a pair of white metal cases on their thighs and a white battery case attached on their backs with the Corps' emblem. Through the transparent material on the front, it holds a cylinder on the bottom. The upper part has the compartment for their swords. These pair of the swords connect to a battery, together with two cable coils on the waist, which the Corps members like to call "Wings."

The three kids are all excited about them, but Eren in particular bounces in repeats, _"Today I'm gonna talk to him! Today I'm gonna talk to him!"_

After seeing Eren closer, Armin notices that he seemed to have missed something. He asks, _"Did you bring the magazine for the autograph?"_

Eren's joy promptly disappears. _"NO! The magazine!"_ He palms his face. _"HOW COULD I FORGET?"_

Mikasa rolls her eyes. _"If it weren't attached to your neck, you'd forget your head."_

Armin makes an annoyed face to Eren. _"Seriously?"_

Pissed, Eren shouts, _"Not now you two!"_

The Corps reach the part of the Avenue where the kids are. A specific soldier, a nineteen-year-old man, steals the attention of the trio. He is not that tall, only around one meter and sixty centimeters, and leads his horse behind him. He has a straight posture while he walks, but he has a slightly angry and tired expression, very different from the confident and intimidating one the kids saw when seeing videos and photos of him.

Eren can't contain himself. He's biting his lips and bouncing from excitement. _"Hnnng! Aaah, haha! It's him! Levi-sama! Hahahahaha!"_

Armin and Mikasa, though still excited, merely let their shiny eyes strictly follow Levi as he passes in front of them.

Mikasa then raises her eyebrows in surprise. _"He seemed taller in the videos."_

The boys nod in agreement.

Eren continues to bounce. _"Ooooh! He's so cool anyway."_ He bites his lips again. " _Hnnng! He joined the Corps at the beginning of the year, and he's already beating all their records!"_

Armin says quickly, _"Yeah! His last kill record was three adjacent Titans in two-point-eight seconds! He reached a speed of sixty-eight kilometers per hour with the Wings! No one has ever been able to do those things!"_

Eren almost starts to drool. _"So cool! Hahahaha!"_

A few of the spectators scrutinize the children with disgusted faces as if the kids are committing a taboo for being fans of the Survey Corps, but there are still one or two who smile because of their joy.

Eren is trying his best to contain his excitement. _"Oh, my God. Oh, my God."_ He turns his back to the Avenue. _"What can I say to him? How am I gonna approach him?"_

While he's trying to figure out a way to approach the soldier, Mikasa breathes slowly, her face turning red like her scarf, but she puts on a brave expression. Armin quietly observes her walk straight ahead to Levi.

Eren is not paying attention to what is going on around him because his mind is too busy thinking of what he's going to say to the soldier. _"Excuse... no... Sir, I... no..." He stops for a few seconds. "Can I poke him?"_ He turns to Armin, screaming, _"What should I do?!"_

Armin then points to Mikasa. _"Well... you can do what Mikasa is doing."_

Eren's eyes almost pop out of his face from fright and anger. _"AAAAHH! HOW DARE SHE GO BEFORE ME?!"_

He desperately runs after her as Armin follows, laughing.  
Much to Eren's dismay, Mikasa is already near the soldier, needing to walk a little faster to keep up with Levi's steps.

When she's close to him, she tries to call for his attention with a shy voice, _"Levi-san. Levi-san, excuse me."_  
He stops and looks over his shoulder.

She freezes the moment he spots her. Too shy to make eye contact and nervously moving her hands, she tries to speak. _"S-S-Sir...M-Me... eeerrm..."_ Her eyes fill with tears of embarrassment.

Levi can't imagine what a little girl like her would want with him, but he feels sorry for her; a girl who's trying to speak but is too shy for it. He leans forward, so they look each other in the eyes. _"There... Is this better?"_

Mikasa feels less intimidated with him eye-to-eye, and she calms down a little.

Eren reaches them, huffing exhaustively, and Armin follows behind him. Levi wasn't expecting a kid, much less two others. He's much more confused now, but he remains quiet and observes them. The moment Eren makes eye contact with him; the boy nearly loses his breath in surprise and makes a scared face. Though Armin can't speak either, he is not as uneasy.

For some seconds, there is an awkward silence because the kids are too shy to speak with their idol, and Levi doesn't have a single clue what is going on.

A corporal, with a very stern look, begins to watch them from afar from on his horse. _'Levi and kids? What the...?'_ he thinks. He remains at a distance and continues to spy.

 _"So?"_ Levi breaks the silence, expecting the kids to do something. Unfortunately, they are too nervous to say a single word. Levi then takes a deep breath and has an idea to calm them. _"Okay, so... let's start from the beginning, shall we?"_

While speaking, he moves his hands, _"You already know me, but whatever. I'm Levi. And you?"_ He then gestures for the kids to answer.

 _"I-I'm...Mikasa,"_ she says, trying to hide her face in her scarf.

 _"I'm... A... Armin, sir,"_ he says in a low tone, trying to make eye contact.

 _"I'm Eren Jaeger!"_ he screams.

The last name echoes in Levi's mind but not because of Eren's scream. _'Eren... Jaeger...? I heard that somewhere...'_ he thinks.

Levi is patient, giving the kids the time they need to feel more comfortable to speak with him. He can't imagine why they are so nervous.

The corporal watching them becomes very curious to know what's happening, so he continues to watch from afar. _'Is he good with kids?'_ he wonders.

 _"Hmm...It seems you have something to tell me"_ , Levi serenely asks. The kids try to put some words out, but nothing comes.  
 _"So, we're going to stay here all day then. Humph, I don't have anything else to do anyway..."_ he shrugs.

Then Eren tried to say something, _"Ah! W-We have music class. We... c-can't stay all day..."_

 _"Oh!"_ Levi's calm turned into curiosity when he heard that.

At the moment he takes a breath to speak, desperate screams echo over the crowd from another part of the avenue. An elder woman is loudly crying near some Corps' members, one of them is the General, the highest authority within the Corps. The kids try to see what she's holding in her arms, but they soon notice the other soldiers. Most of them are severely wounded and scared. Some are dead inside, and many are dead while being carried upon carriages.

They can't believe their eyes. Their "heroes" looked destroyed, and the joy in their faces is taken by a scared and sad expression. Levi notices the reality shock the kids just took. _"Hey... brats...you better get back to your parents, this is not a place for innocent minds"._

Armin replies without making eye contact, _"we walk by ourselves, Sir. We don't hang out with an older person."_  
Levi is skeptical about how such young kids have that kind of autonomy.

A citizen that is watching them says loud with a debauch tone, _"Humph! This only confirms that we're only sending more food for Their delight!"_ The other men around him laughs.

The kids don't like how that ignorant man portrayed the Corps' effort, Eren opens his mouth to reply him, but he's unexpectedly interrupted by an irrational action of Levi, who furiously replies to the man, _"OH...REALLY?! HOW ABOUT YOU GO FACE THE TITANS, AND WE STAY THERE JUDGING?!"_

The citizens were stunned by his reaction; never had a Corp's member reacted like that to a taunt. Suddenly the Corporal, who was watching them, rushes with his horse in their direction. He didn't approve what Levi just did. _"Levi! What were you doing? What was that?!"_

Levi only glares over his shoulder at the man, even with him being his superior.

Once again, the kids became breathless. More of their "stars" from the Survey Corps appear in front of them. Even though Levi is their number one, this man made their eyes shine too. The man looks at them and asks Levi, _"Who are those kids?"_  
Eren can't contain his excitement again. _"OH MY GOD! It's Corporal Erwin Smith!"_

Levi just shrugs a response to Erwin.

The elder woman's loud cry calls the attention of everyone again, with a desperately look and non-stopping tears she asks the General, deep looking into his eyes of sorrow, _"Sir...was my son was useful?"_

The General became more nervous as she continued. _"You...you don't have to say that he was a hero...but please... tell me...the sacrifice of my son..."_ , she then screams, _" ...contributed to the revival of mankind?!"_

The unwitting general enters in a complete state of shock, only the wind can be heard during this sensitive scenario. Everyone is quietly waiting for his answer. After some seconds of her questioning, he bows before her and gives a desperately answer, _"Of course!"_

He stops for a few seconds and lay down his head, thinking in what he just said. Unfortunately, that wasn't the real answer. _"No... This time our expedition...no...Once again our expedition..."_

He takes a deep breath and screams in despair, _"...wasn't able to make any advance! I'm a complete disgrace! I caused the death of many comrades! Our mission to discover the origin and objectives of the Titans...was a total failure!"_

An awkward silence takes all the place. Even the wind is in silence. A dense atmosphere is upon them. All Corps' members, except Levi, looked away in shame. The three little ones don't accept what the General just said; their faces are of complete despair and negation. 'How can a man, who commands an organization that fights against mankind's worst enemy, be so weak like that?' It's the only thing that passes on their minds.

 _"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"_

Eren's shout of wrath destroys the silence, scaring everyone in the place, mainly the ones near him. He furiously marches in the direction of the General, which is looking at him very scared. Mikasa and Armin go together. He continues to yell at the General, _"How dare you say such thing?! That's not true! You can't say that! Or you will be throwing away the efforts of everyone that sacrificed itself for the Corps' cause!"_

Some soldiers get their flip cellphones from the jacket's pocket, and with the camera, they begin to record Eren. Citizens that had cameras are recording him too.

 _"No effort is useless," he continues, "They died because they believed in the cause! The cause to understand our enemy for defeats them before they do to us! And bring the freedom to mankind! Do you will simply give up like that?!"_

The sheepish faces of the soldiers slowly become of surprise, others of confusion, with Eren's words.

Mikasa, driven by Eren's energy, says, _"Ne-Negative energy only attracts more negative energy. My mom used to say that...'Mankind never would be prosperous like this if they had given up at every new problem'"._

Armin gets near the elder woman and touches her shoulder. _"Don't worry, Miss. Your son's actions may not make a difference right now, but you can be sure that they will make a lot of difference in the future."_

The old lady cries more than before, but with a simple smile on her face. She hugs tight the dirty roll of fabric she's holding in her arms.

All Survey Corps' members are entirely amazed; the dejected atmosphere was suppressed thanks to those sincere and innocent words of the trio. In retribution of such kind act, they cheer them with a round of applause.

That was a completely impulsive act of the kids. They just realized what they did when they hear the applause and see the entire Corps looking at them. They don't know where to hide their faces and become paralyzed with the situation they are in.

Erwin thinks loud, "Hmm... They mostly repeated what our followers say on the internet, but it seems that everyone was in need to hear that personally."

Levi shrugs. _"Whatever..."_

Erwin becomes suspicious about Levi's actions, something doesn't seem right.

A part of the fabric the woman is holding falls, revealing a corpse's arm. The kids see that and scream in fright. Armin becomes nauseous with the scent.

Erwin is worried about that. _"Levi, take those children out of here, accompanies them to home or whatever the place they need to go. I will take your horse with me to the train."_

Reluctant, Levi replies, _"Why me? Why not send your Sniffer Dog? Or the Four Eyes?"_

After that answer, Erwin is now more than sure that something is awry. Levi never behaved like a rebel. Erwin really wants to discuss with his soldier about those specific actions, but he knows that there isn't the place for it. _"I'm not asking! That's an order."_

Angry and discontent, Levi goes after the Trio. _"Hey yo! Little brats."_ He gives slight shoves on the kids' back for they walk. _"Thank you for the kind words, but this is not a place for you. My Corporal ordered me to take you home."_

He leads them to outside the Avenue.

 _ **Streets of Shiganshina - 11:02 AM**_

While ascending a hill, Levi makes the kids go in front of him, so they don't breathe the smoke from the cigarette he lit. After exhaling some smoke, he asks, _"Where do you need to go?"_

They are a little bit more comfortable to speak with him now, but still couldn't look at his face and talk without stuttering. Eren is able to answer with shy eye contact. _"We...We gotta go to my house for...lu-lunch."_

Levi is surprised that they still can't speak freely with him. _"Hmm... It's funny how you could say all that stuff to my boss, but you can't look me in the face. I know I don't have a pretty face, but I'm not a creepy thing too...I guess..."_

 _"You're not ugly,"_ Mikasa denies without looking at him.

With a simple smile, he says, _"Oh, good to hear that from a child."_

 _"Wha...What do you mean?"_ Armin curiously asks.

With the cigarette on the mouth, he answers, _"Don't mind that, Blondy."_ He then exhales some smoke.

After some walk in silence, Eren stops, everyone stops after it.  
 _"What's up?"_ , Levi asks.

Eren turns to the soldier and looks at his face, he now feels confident to speak with him, even while his face is blushing. _"How...How's the Outside?"_

Levi raises his eyebrows in surprise, such little kid; already curious about that. _'Life must be boring here'_ he thinks. Suspicious, he asks, _"Why do you wanna know that?"_

With a brief look on his eyes and down his head, Eren says, _"It's because... We feel like caged birds here..."_

Armin and Mikasa down their heads too.

That was much more unexpected than having kids wanting to talk with him; such curiosity for the Outside is frowned upon by the society. "Live in peace inside the Walls and leave the Titan Hell to the Outside" is what most part of the population thinks. "We have everything we need here, why care about the Outside?" Is another thought.

Feeling bad for them and looking away, Levi answers, _"I know what you're feeling..."_

The kids raise their heads, with a curiosity glow on the eyes. They stare at him, waiting for him to tell a story or something, that is making him embarrassed; now he's the one blushing.  
 _"Ahh...erm..."_ he puts his hands on the waist. _"Except for the Titans, it's not as much different than the lands we have inside here. At least, from what I've seen from the distance I went."_

Armin says, with a low voice and disappointed, _"Ah... I thought there would be the ocean...I guess it's further than I thought"_

 _"The ocean?_ " Levi asks. _"What is that?"_

Armin calls Levi close for he whispers in his ear. _"My grandpa has a forbidden book about the Outside."_

 _"Ooh, hehe. Cool gramps...hmm, so...what is the ocean?"_

 _"It's a huuuuge lake,"_ he opens his arms to try to represent the size. _"That disappears from the sight, with salt water!"_

 _"Salt? Oh well..."_ He stops talking for a few seconds, and they continue to walk. _"If we ever see something like, I will tell you, Blondy."_

Armin opens a broad smile on his face. _"Really?!"_

A little cranky, Levi says, _"Yeah..."_

Not so surprised, Eren questions his phrase, _"Too much Titans?"_

Just to think about it, Levi becomes annoyed. _"You bet. The further we go, the more Titans show up. Not just in quantity but in danger too."_ Levi throws on the ground the last of his cigarette and steps on it to fade the heat.

Eren asks, _"Dangerous Titans? Are you talking about the Deviants?"_

With a recycled fabric, from a small pack on one of his pockets, he gets the remains of the cigarette and dumps them on the nearby trash can. _"You know about the Deviants then."_ He pats his hands to clean them.

 _"We like to read the open research of Hanji-hakase,"_ Armin says.

 _"Ah...the Four Eyes' stuff"_ , Levi says rolling his eyes.

 _"Deviants seem to be quite creepy,"_ Mikasa says worriedly.

Levi giggles and whispers to the kids, _"It's because you haven't seen a Deformed yet."_

 _"Def-?!"_ Eren is interrupted by a silence signal Levi makes as he blinks one eye at him.

Levi whispers, _"That's our little secret, just like about that book"_ and they continue to walk.

Levi notices something weird with himself, a kind of lightness on his body, all the stress he'd been feeling back on the Avenue is fading. He had felt that before, but can't recognize what it is now.

Very curious, Eren can't contain his mouth. _"How are they?"_  
Levi shivers entirely, just the slightly remembrance of them creeps him out. He dry swallows. _"I only saw two all this time; they are rare to show up. They are much more than what the name says, they really look like monsters from a nightmare. That moth-"_ He quickly stops, realizing what he was going to say isn't suitable for children. He's sweating cold thinking on the trouble he almost got in.

 _"What were you going to say?"_ Mikasa innocently asks.

He starts getting nervous. _"Something not for you kids...erm...it's...ahh"_ , he scratches his head. _"Adult talk."_

Armin says, _"Technically, you're a teenager, not an adult...yet."_

Annoyed, he replies him nervously, _"Yeah, and you're a smarta-aaaa...sshhhh...hmm...kid! Kid."_

The way Levi is acting embarrassed is funny for the kids. Eren giggles. _"You weren't going to say 'kid'"_

Mocking him, Levi says, _"Oooh! So... do you think it's funny when another person's in trouble, hm? You little shshhhh...urgh! Oh boy..."_

The kids giggle at the teen's attempts of not-saying-a-mean-word.

Levi is turning red like a ripe apple. _"Stop laughing! You're not helping it!"_ He screams.

More he tries to fix it, more the kids laugh. _"Uuurgh...you little shiiiiiirk! Grr! Why do I have such fuc-argh! Dirty mouth?! From ten words, five are mean! Sh- urgh! Fuc-ARGH! GOD DAMN IT!"_

The kids can't hold themselves; they are crying from laughing so much. They never imagined Levi could be so funny; he's always solemn, or even emotionless, on the internet videos.

Their happiness touches Levi's heart. That simple moment makes all the stress from the failed expedition fades away. He feels his body lighter, like if their laughs just took off a massive rock from his back.

Eren says while cleaning his tears, _"he..hehehe. You're soo..."_

 _"Crazy?"_ Levi interrupts him.

 _"No, funny,"_ he giggles.

 _"Noooo...no, no. Don't mind, call me crazy. Calling someone from Survey Corps crazy it's..."_ he takes a deep breath and put his hands on the waist. _"A compliment."_

Thinking about what he said, he looks away with an expression that states "that doesn't sound right."

A man's voice comes from the other side of the street, _"Oi! Eren and company!"_

 ** _To be continue..._**


	2. Chap 1,2:For you, 2000 years on the past

They look around searching for the owner of the voice. At a small bar at the other side of the road, covered by the shadow of the building in front, they see a man waving at them. He's wearing a military uniform with some other three man on his table are wearing the same as well.

After spotting him, Levi notices that those men are wearing the uniform from the ** _Garrison Troops_** , the branch who was responsible for policing the perimetric cities, maintaining the walls and administrating the rail transport. They are the most prominent division in the entire military, as well as the most engineered.

Eren screams surprising Levi, as he then waved to the man furiously, " _Hanes-san!_ " he shouts.

After some cars pass, they cross the road, moving towards the man.

Calm music is playing inside the bar. There are a few customers low talking and eating there. The four Garrison soldiers are at one of the small wood tables on the bar's sidewalk.

 _"What you're doing h-?"_ Eren is interrupted when a sudden sharp and pungent smell filled his young sensitive nose. _"Ugh! What's that smell?"_ , Eren shouts while covering his nose and face.

Levi barely saw the soldiers and is already annoyed with them. He looks to Eren, unamused by the boy's actions, _"That's alcohol, brat."_ Skeptical, he then asks the soldier, _"Are you drinking on the job?"_

 _"We're...just taking a break during our lunch! He-he...he."_ He says with a drunken soft but hardy laugh.

Levi narrows his eyes and gives a 'Tsk' before speaking, _"You can't drink during work, that's irresponsible!"_ He shouts.

Hanes stares Levi for a few seconds before turning to the kids, _"What are you three doing with a Survey Corps member?"_ He asks the kids, trying to understand what brings a rival branch to their side of town.

Levi's only response, giving that he didn't like to be ignored, was a small growl of annoyance as he was losing his patience with the Garrison Veteran.

Armin answers, _"He's taking us to Eren's house..."_

Some of the other drunken soldiers laugh and one of them, a slightly fat soldier, says, _"Hahaha! Now the Corps babysits instead of dying to Titans?"_

Levi takes a deep breath as he closes the hands, wanting to punch that drunken man. He then turns to Eren and asks him while pointing at Hanes in a very aggravated tone, _"How do you know him?"_

 _"He's a friend of my Mom's,"_ Eren said plainly.

 _"Nice,"_ Levi says ironically.

The fat soldier gets up from the chair. _"Aah... I remember who you are..."_

He walks towards Levi and points at him, he says, _"Hey! You're that shitty teen...that came from the Underground...directly to the Survey Corps!"_

The surroundings become silent. The people around them change their focus on to the Corps Soldier and the three kids. Levi's self-control is being tested; he's holding as much as he can back, so he does not start a fight with that drunk soldier. He knows that he will be in big trouble if he does something irrational. Regardless, his expression is of pure anger, making it seem like if the drunken man made one wrong move, he would attack him. From far in the distance, thunder roars.

Way more sober than his friend, Hanes shivers a bit. _"H-Hey...Omar, watch your language near the kids,"_ he says with fearful hesitation.

Armin interrupts them, _"And what's the problem with him being from the Underground? I know it's said that it is supposed to be a bad place, but the birthplace doesn't define the person."_

While staring at Levi, Omar then turns his gaze to Armin, _"Ah? The problem kiddo? Ha! He shouldn't be here, he was a criminal"_ , he said.

Levi has left a significant part of his composure on the battlefield. Omar didn't see his signals because of the alcohol.

Hanes grows worried about that situation as he knew that the Survey Corps members are known to be unpredictable. _"Omar...please, you're not in the right state for this..."_ the veteran says as he tries to push him away from Levi.

More thunder is heard in the distance. Mikasa looks up to the sky, concern and confusing filling her eyes. ' _Will it rain? But there aren't clouds in the sky'_ she says to herself.

 _"So, what?!"_ , Eren shouts, getting in the middle of their discussion. _"He's not a criminal anymore! Now he helps mankind move forward with the Survey Corps. He doesn't waste his time on useless things like you!"_ he finishes, making the room dead silent with shock.

The three little ones don't stop to amaze the cranky teenager. They don't care about who they are facing, and the only relevant matter is defending their idol and opinions.

The buzzing of their discussion starts to call the attention of all the customers inside the bar. Some citizens passing by are stopping some steps away from them, curious to know what could be happening between these soldiers of such different branches. Other people more rushed just pass near giving a quick, questioning look to them.

With the pride hurt for not being respected by the youngling, the offended and drunken soldier, childly response, _"Ah?! And what do you know about military?! You stupid brat!"_

Snorting angrily, he walks stomping with clenched fists towards the fearless boy. The troublesome kid is facing him back with a bold look in the eyes, unaware about the brawl he just started with an irrational grow up man.

 _"Hey! Omar!"_ Hanes shouts as he quickly tries to stop his drunken comrade from doing something out of reason.

In a matter of a second, faster than the slightly drunk Garrison veteran, Levi gets in front of the kids, shielding them from the eminent pointless threat. He dares Omar with a deadly glare, looking right into his eyes. He then says in a low and creepy tone, _"If you dare do something with those kids...I will make sure that you are going to wake up in a hospital bed tomorrow."_

Omar finally noticed that Levi isn't just annoyed; he's eager to pick up a serious brawl. Looking deep into Levi's eyes, Omar has the feeling of having a deadly wild beast in front of him. He steps back in fear and whisper, _"Devil..."_

The other Garrison soldiers get up from their chairs in fright because of Levi's threat. The civilians nearby are scared as well and take a distance from them.

 _'That's the aura of someone who's used to see death up close?'_ Hanes concluded to himself.

Contrary to everyone else, the kids aren't scared of Levi's energy; the dense aura is actually giving them a feeling of safety by being near him.

Suddenly, Levi's fire dissipates and accompanied by an intense headache. A deep and robust voice laughs in his mind and screams, _'Kill him!'_

Some thunders roar at the same time far in the sky. Levi moans in pain and puts a hand on his head.

Confused, Mikasa shouts worried, _"Levi?"_

 _'Just do it!'_ the voice comes again, making his head hurt more.

Levi moans louder as he leans forward because of the pain.

 _"Levi!"_ the kids scream worried and get closer to him.

Without a single cloud, lightning strikes the sky, shocking everyone nearby. The unexpected malaise in Levi and the unusual lightning activity is making everyone confused; no one knows where to focus. The soldiers and the citizens exchange scared looks between them. Some citizens look to the soldiers, expecting them to do something about it, but with the alcohol disrupting their thoughts they couldn't think of what they are supposed to do.

 _'Why here?! You motherfucker!' Levi cursed in his mind. Slowly, his vision fogs and only the image of a furry monster come to his mind._

 _"Aaah! But this is not what you want?!" The monster bellowed, trying to manipulate his line of thought._

His headache grows worse at every word from its mouth. While everyone was focused on Levi, more lightning filled the sky, accompanied with loud thunders, surprising and shocking everybody in the neighborhood.

 _"Crush that bastard's skull an-!"_ The monster shuts up at the moment Levi feels something on his hanging hand.

The lightning stopped at the same moment. Levi's mind was stunned by the gentle touch of Mikasa's little hands. She is looking at him anxiously. Eren and Armin are looking at him the same way. She is softly holding his hand; her hands are light as a feather for him.

 _'How could such thing be so fragile?'_ Levi is asking himself. His mind is trying to process that moment; he never had physical contact with a kid before. He can't stop looking at their hands in a trance, yet with a perplexed look on his eyes.

 _"What is going on?"_ She asks him worried"

He is able to snap back when he heard her voice. Still lost in his own thoughts, he tries to formulate an explanation. _"Ah... I think...it's... just fatigue from work."_

The kids relax a bit, but Levi knows that's not the truth.

 _"Ha! Yeah. Sure", ironically says the fluffy monster._

 _"Stop it!" Levi yells at the monster._

The soldiers and citizens around them are looking at the sky very confused. The lightning activity stopped like if someone just pressed a switch button to turn it off.  
Suddenly, Levi's stomach makes some loud noises, embarrassing him a lot because there's plenty of people looking at him.

Eren then says, _"And you're very hungry. I have headaches when hungry as well."_

 _"Yeah...maybe"_ , Levi says sweating cold and a bit puffy. He pats his face while retakes the breath. He can regain his serious expression now that his headache finally stopped. _"Where I was...? Ah, yeah. I can't disagree with Eren. You're losing your work time with useless drinks, while you could be training or eating some decent stuff."_

Because of Levi's words, the soldiers became annoyed, and some are growling offended.

 _"How do you plan to be prepared when trouble appears? Something simple like a street fight or something more radical like..."_ He takes some seconds to think, and then turn his eyes to the wall. He says serious, _"If Titans were able to pass the Walls."_

Everyone around them chocked scared with his last phrase, citizens there were drinking split all their drink back to the cup, some others even almost fall off from their chair. The soldiers are all looking at him with a face that says "you're crazy." The kids become shocked, they weren't expecting that.

Omar laughs loud. _"Have you smoked too much Titan steam? Ha-ha! It's been two hundred years that those walls have been intact and protect us from them."_

 _"So?"_ Levi replies with an annoyed face. _"Have you fought-no, at least seen Titans up close? After everything I've seen, I wouldn't be surprised if I see one of them climbing the walls or...a really high one. If you don't know the subject, don't try to discuss it, idiot."_

Hanes gets in front of Omar before he can think of a response. _"Hey, Omar. Enough, okay? It's pointless to discuss Titans with a Survey Corps Member."_

Omar didn't like that, but he decides to obey the veteran and quietly steps back

 _"Thank you,"_ Levi says to Hanes, with a simple victory smile on his face now that the drunken man had shut up.

Hanes turns to Levi and says in an attempt to finish the discussion, _"Yes, we are wasting our time with those drinks. But it's better like this. Listen; if people see the military fighting, they will see that something is quite wrong and the panic will be installed. While we are called a 'waste of taxes' or 'lazy useless soldiers' it means that humans are at peace."_

Levi expression turns to slight grief. _"So, you're saying that you accept to live like a caged bird forever and after? If there's a thing that I learned, in the worst way as possible, is that nothing lasts forever."_

That last word bugs Hanes, making him thoughtful.

Armin softly pulls Levi's arm, calling his attention. _"Excuse me, Sir... But it's getting late."_

Levi just turns his back to the Garrison soldiers and walks away. The kids wave to Hanes in goodbye and follow Levi.

 ** _Streets of Shiganshina - 11:36 AM_**

The little trio and the displaced soldier continued to Eren's house. The streets are profoundly silent, only the sound of the gentle breeze can be heard aside from Eren's and Armin's laughs and quick steps. The two boys are happily playing catch as they move forward on their path and with no traffic, they sometimes quickly run to the middle of the street.

Levi and Mikasa are peacefully following the boys. Although, Levi feels uneasy because of Mikasa as she is still holding his hand. The fact of her hand is smaller and lighter than his is making him afraid of hurting her if he squeezes too tight.

 _"So, that's what happy kids look like," the monster inside his mind wonders._

 _In response, Levi asks, "What do you mean?"_

 _"Well, we never saw it such happiness down there. Aaaaw! They're so cute! Can I hug them?" The monster asks._

Looking away, Levi makes a face that says "what the hell?"

 _"Dude, no. We just met them," he replies reluctantly._

 _Levi sees in his mind an image of the monster disappointed, with a cranky face and crossed arms. Quickly, the creature changes his mood and says, mocking "Hug them for me then. Haha."_

 _"Fluffy Ass!" Levi screams to him._

 _"MOMMY! We are here!"_ Levi heard Eren screaming, interrupting his internal conversation.

Distracted by the chat with Fluffy Ass, Levi didn't notice they were near a small loft. The place isn't visually too different from the neighbor houses; two floors painted in white and a small front yard. The combination of the sweet scent of food being prepared inside, the silent streets and the gentle breeze on that warm day are creating a peaceful atmosphere upon the place gave him a brand new sensation. The place he grew was the complete opposite.

A woman's voice comes from inside, _"I'm going, Sweetheart!"_

Stopping by the front door, they hear from inside quick steps approaching. A few moments later the door is unlocked, and a woman exits wearing cooking apron.

 _"Why did you take so lo-?"_ Levi's presence stunned her. Distressed, she tries to hold her voice so not speak aloud, she asks her son, _"What...what is this soldier doing with you?"_

 _"Wait...he's from...the Survey Corps?! What kind of trouble did you get yourselves into this time?"_ , she changes her question.

By the mom's reaction, Levi had the impression that those three kids maybe got in trouble almost every day. _"This time? Hehe, it's nothing really, Miss."_ He shrugs to her.

She's very distrustful about his words, and he noticed that.

 _"Eren, the magazine,"_ Mikasa says.

 _"Oh yeah! Thanks Mikasa!"_ Eren says. _"Wait for just a little Levi-san. Please!"_

The kids run into the house very quickly; Armin nearly stumbling in one of the steps of the small stairs before the entrance door. Carla quick leans forward to try to help, but he could get up by himself. Levi simply "pft's" holding his laughter as he covers his smile with his hand.

 _At the same moment, Fluffy Ass speaks, in an awkward tone, "Dude...that was so wrong..."_

Carla noticed Levi's fun over the kid's mistake, and an awkward silence fell between them. He then takes another cigarette and the lighter from one of the pockets of his jacket.  
 _"So, you're that famous soldier Levi?"_ she asks him with a slight disgust face.

While lighting the cigarette, he says, _"famous?"_

Her eyes widen. _"Don't you know about your own fame?"_ She asks surprised.

 _"In the middle of the military, yes. Other than that, no,"_ Levi says before smoking.

Carla is incredulous about the apathy shown teenager. _"What? You're a superstar on the internet. The Survey Corps is getting more supporters thanks to you, and you don't know that?"_

He exhales some smoke and says, _"No... And I don't give a fuck."_

 _"But you should care,"_ she contests. _"You are influencing many people, and my son and his friends are some of them. Because of you, they are dreaming of joining the Survey Corps."_

Carla's attempts to show Levi how the image of the Survey Corps affects the commoners are starting to annoy him. _"And by your face, I see you don't like that."_

Angrily, she replies, _"Of course not! It's insane what you guys do!"_

Levi stays quiet for a few seconds, thinking about how to stop this annoying conversation from continuing. _"Tsc. Miss... please, chill. They are still kids. Wait for them to mature. They'll probably change their minds."_

She calms down a little after that. _"Humph... I hope you're right."_

The kids come out of the house, again in a hurry. Eren is holding a magazine and a pen, while Mikasa is caring some kind of small paper pack. Eren then hangs the magazine and the pen to Levi, who are looking at it very confused.

Red like a tomato, Eren nervously asks, _"C-Can...we-we get your...au...autograph?!"_

Levi blushes surprised that those three little kids were really his fans. He's amazed; he hadn't believed what Carla said. The kids are too flushed, and their eyes are shinning while looking at him. He doesn't know what to say, he just slowly gets the magazine and the pen.

The magazine's named "Military Week" has a big photo of him using the Wings and a huge text: "From the underground to the skies! Has Survey Corps found their killing machine?!"

He makes a confused expression, he doesn't remember giving authorization for any media to do that.

 _Fluffy Ass then says, "What the hell?"_

While Levi keeps staring the magazine, the kids are nervously waiting for him to write the autograph, but he's quiet, trying to understand the situation he got himself into.

He snaps out of his silence. _"Oh yeah, sure."_

He keeps the cigarette in his mouth and supports the magazine at the small wall of the house's entrance so he can write. Instants before he places the pen on the cover, he remembers his poor education. He begins to slowly write using his left hand; the words come out with difficulty, he has to stop every now and then to remember how each word is written.

Very distrustful, Carla asks him, _"Are you illiterate?"_

 _"Mommy!"_ Eren yells embarrassed.

Levi shyly giggles and says, _"No, it's okay little brat. Your mom is right, it really looks like that I'm barely literate... well...because I am."_

The kids weren't expecting that, and they can only exchange surprised looks between them. Having in mind the place from where he came, Carla is not so upset.

 _"Ha-ha... that's very shameful, I think..."_ he finishes.

Continuing to slowly write, he watches so his hand doesn't pass over the wet ink on that glossy recycled paper. The kids anxiously wait for him to finish as they begin to get closer. Mikasa and Armin are quietly waiting, but Eren is walking around him, trying to see what he's writing. When he finds a spot, Levi covers the magazine with the other arm to hide it, teasing the boy. Eren returns to anxiously pacing around Levi, what begins to disturb him a little.

 _"Dude,"_ he says to the energetic kid. _"Are you plugged into an outlet or something?"_

Eren giggles and continues to circle him. When he passes near Mikasa, she quickly pulls him holding the back of his shirt, slightly choking him by the collar. Levi "pft's" as he saw that scene in his peripheral view. The cranky teenager's dark humor is starting to bother Carla. _"Mikasa, dear. Be gentler next time."_

 _"Sorry, Carla-san..."_ Mikasa says low, with half face hidden on her scarf.

Levi finally finishes the autograph and turns to Mikasa. With a mocking tone, while he speaks, he demonstrates with the hands what he's saying. _"Yeah, you can gently put your feet in front of him next time. He'll fall like a potato sack. Poft!"_

Mikasa shyly giggles, imagining the scene. Carla looks at her, scared. She didn't expect that from the girl she knows as sweet and gentle.

Eren gasped and shouts to Levi nervously, _"Man! Don't give her ideas!"_

Levi can't contain a smile. After some seconds of silence, he returns the magazine and the pen to Eren. Very embarrassed, he stutters, _"Do-...don't mind my-my handwriting..."_

Armin barely looks the writing and says, _"Oh... it looks like Eren's handwriting."_

 _"Can't deny,"_ Eren responds.

The kids try to read that kindergarten handwriting like theirs, after some seconds they can understand "'I will be waiting for you at Survey Corps. Signed, Levi'."

They begin to smile. When the kids look at Levi, he blinks one eye at them. Eren hugs the magazine tightly in happiness. _"Thank you, Sir! Thank you so much! You're amazing!"_

Though, he doesn't believe Eren's last words. _'Sorry brats... but if you meet my real self...you would be very disappointed'_ , he thinks.

The kids are amazed; they are bouncing and laughing with joy. While Levi destroys the finished cigarette, he says _"Thanks for this short talk we had. I hope we can have more some other day."_ He puts the smoke in a recycled fabric and put in an empty pocket for discard later. Then, he presses the buttons on the point of the swords to handle on the Wings, turning on the equipment. The battery makes some beep noises, and blue neon lights turn on where it was black.

 _"Wait!"_ Mikasa yells. _" Here, we wanted to give to you this."_

She gives to him the small pocket she was holding. He opens it and saw it contained some chocolate cookies.

 _"We made them yesterday with Carla-san's help. After that noise your belly made back there, we thought you may have these for dessert."_ She gives a smile to him.

 _Nearly having syncope, Fluffy Ass shouts crazily for the kids' cuteness, "Oooooh! Aaaaw! Those damn cute brats! Hug them! HUUUUG!"_

Levi was so embarrassed, he could barely make eye contact with the kids. He gently places the cookie pack in a pocket on his jacket. All that kindness was making him reactionless. He doesn't know what to do.

 _"And it's for her too,"_ Eren says as he points to Levi's right side.

Levi turns around to see who it is, but there's no one else. Awkwardly, he asks, _"Who?"_

 _"This woman at your side. She's so skinny, she must be hungry too"_ , Eren says calmly, like if there's a real person there.

Levi searches around for the woman Eren is talking about, but the only woman there is Carla.

 _"Eren! Don't start with those things again!"_ Carla yells worried, walking towards the kids on the street in a hurry.

 _"Wait! Wait! Wait!_ " Levi says scared, nervously moving his hands. _"Is he one of those dudes who can see ghosts?"_

Ashamed, Carla grabs Eren by the arm and asks Levi, _"Please, don't mind what my son says. He has a vivid imagination."_

She leads him to the door of the house, Armin and Mikasa coming behind them. But for her despair Eren continues insistently, _"But mommy! She's right there!"_ He keeps pointing to Levi's right side. _"She's been following Levi since the Avenue."_

At the second Levi heard that he shivered entirely, his spine got cold once the only thing that passes on his mind is that he's being haunted.

They stop at the door. Carla is really nervous about Eren, lost in her actions, trying to make her stubborn son shut up; she says in a low tone, _"Son, please, stop it. You can't say these things in front of other people."_

Levi searches again, but there's no skinny woman with them, not even around.

 _"Okay... now this is getting weird..."_ Fluffy Ass says frightened.

Quickly, he presses the triggers of the swords' cable, and only the cable comes out from the bay. _"Sorry, but I have to go before Eyebrows start to piss me off again. Nice to meet 'ya!"_

He waves to the kids and runs away. As they wave back, Mikasa shouts, _"It was our pleasure to meet you!"_

He launches the hooks on the front buildings and with a steady gas release, and he fles away. Amazed by that scene, Eren yells excited, _"Oooooh! Hahaha! Did you see that?!"_

 _"Woa! That's so much cooler personally!"_ Armin shouts.

Despite the kid's enjoyment, Carla doesn't like any of that. So, she called out with a change of subject, "Kids, come in. Lunch is almost ready."

The trio runs happily into the house.

 ** _Jaegers' house - 12:47 PM_**

The trio, along with Eren's parents, is having lunch in the dining room, the table full of food. As no walls were separating the rooms, the TV can be seen in the living room on the News channel streamed via the internet. The TV, connected to a CPU, is controlled through a wireless mouse, currently on Carla's possession. While everyone was calmly eating their food, Eren can't stay quiet; he's gladly telling his father about Levi, the only neutral person about Survey Corps he knows.

After reading the autograph, the father says, _"I'm glad to know that he was nice to you."_

Eren is so excited he barely touched his food. _"Yeah! He's so awesome! And funny too. We thought we would be cranky. Ha-ha!"_

Carla doesn't like any of that, the subject of the "Survey Corps" annoys her. She says to Eren, talking low, _"Eren, eat your food."_

 _"Ah, sorry mom,"_ he then puts a big piece of meat in the mouth.

 _"The veggies too,"_ she says with a face daring her stubborn son.

Still chewing, he looks to the vegetables and moans with a disgust looking face.

Rereading the autograph, Eren's father asks a bit worried, _"But... why did a Survey Corps Soldier escort you home?"_

The kids nearly choked with their food, stopping what they were doing, and began to exchange looks at each other like "should we tell?"

Carla, very distrustful, says, " _The soldier said it was 'nothing.'"_

The father, distrusted by Carla's words, gives a very suspicious look to his son.

The kids got nervous, Eren started to sweat cold, he swallowed his food and with a timid and low voice he says, _"We... we went to... see... the Corps arrival at the gate..."_

Carla gasped in fright. _"What?! That's why you took so long then!"_

 _"Eren, I thought we've made it clear that the Corps' arrival isn't for children to see,"_ the father says seriously. _"I know you want to join the Corps when you grow up, but you can't just disobey us like that. You should have just come home."_

 _"I should have known..."_ Carla says disappointedly. _"And you even dragged your friends together."_

Desperate, Eren tries to calm down his mother. _"But they were so nice to us!"_

 _"That's not the point!"_ she yells, scaring him.

 _"Carla, they are too young to understand what we mean,_ " the father says, calming her down a little.

 _"I know, Grisha..."_ she replies anxiously, pressing a hand on her head.

Mikasa suddenly gasped, making a scared face while looking at the TV. Everyone else turns to see the TV as well, to know what's going on. The News was showing images of what they did back on the Avenue with the Corps General. Carla high up the volume of the TV volume so they could hear the journalist saying, _"The video went viral in minutes and has been dividing many opinions about it. On one side, Survey Corps supporters are calling those three little kids 'The Hope of the Corps' and are spreading their words all across social media. On the other side, the people against the Survey Corps are making negative comments, questioning things like 'where are those kids' parents?' or 'shut down the Survey Corps content on the internet, it's a bad influence for the young.' Now we will see a part of their polemic speech,"_ and a video of what happened was played.

Grisha and Carla look back angrily, directly at Eren and she said with a dangerously low, angry tone, _"You and Mikasa are grounded."_ She turns to Armin. _"I hope your grandfather is watching this, I'm going to call him."_

The kids were so ashamed, and they didn't know where to hide their faces.

 ** _A week later - Jaeger's house - 2:24 PM_**

Grisha was organizing some things in his work bag. The trio watched him quietly; Eren with an electric guitar bag on his back, Mikasa and Armin have ordinary school bags.

Paying attention to what his father is doing, Eren asks, _"Dad... can we have our magazines back now?"_

His father only moves his eyes to look at him and solemn, he says, _"What did your mom and I told you?"_

Low-spirited, he lays the chin on the desk and answers, _"One week without seeing stuff about Survey Corps... but...!"_

Looking at his papers, he says earnestly, _"No 'buts,' your punishment ends today, you and Mikasa will be free tomorrow. Your grandfather did the same, right, Armin?"_

 _"Yeah..."_ Armin sadly answers.

The kids were sad and quiet, just observing Grisha. There's an awkward silence between them.

 _"Why...just why do you want to join the Corps so much?"_ Grisha calmly asks, breaking the silence.

 _"Why can't we go outside?"_ Eren says bothered. _"Is it just because of the Titans? That doesn't make any sense."_

Armin continues Eren's argument, _"We have methods to fight them, then why so much fear?"_

And Mikasa completes, _"The government seems to fear much more the Outside than the Titans themselves."_

Eren gets up his head, _"We want the freedom that the Survey Corps is looking for. We don't want to live shamefully as caged birds in here."_

Grisha slowly blinks, while his glasses reflect the sunlight as he raises his head. He closes his bag, thinking about the innocent words of the kids. _"I see..."_ he says low.

He then gets, from inside his shirt, an old golden key with a chip on the point, that he uses as a necklace and show to the kids. _"When I return from my work, I'll show a secret I have hidden in the basement and a special person I want you to meet."_

The kids' eyes shine while looking at the key, which has a weak gleam.

 _"What person?"_ Eren asks smiling.

 _"If I tell you it won't be a surprise anymore,"_ he smirks at them.

The kids moan in disappointment but are a little more animated now.

Carla descends the stairs, wearing some hang out clothes. _"The taxi will arrive in minutes, are you ready dear?"_ she asks Grisha.

 _"Of course, my love,"_ he answers smirking.

 ** _2:27 PM_**

The kids and Carla wave goodbye to Grisha inside the taxi, he leaves right after.

 _"Okay... So, mom... Will you go with us to the music school again?"_ Eren says.

 _"Of course. I won't let you three walk alone anymore after that event last week"_ , Carla says grumpily. _"And your grandfather will pick you after it on the square again, Armin."_

Armin says, a little down, _"Okay Carla-san..."_

Carla begins to walk up the street, the kids, dispirited, follows her.

 ** _Music school of Shiganshina - 5:38 PM_**

The trio is waiting for Carla, sitting on the sidewalk in front of the school. Everyone that passes nearby looks at them curiously, yet some have a disgusted look. As a couple gathers their children near, the woman whispers to her husband, _"Aren't those the kids that yelled to the Survey Corps' General?"_

He replies, _"Yes, I wonder what their parents are thinking to let them see Survey Corps' content."_

They could hear what they said, and that pissed off Eren. When he's getting up to yell at the man, Mikasa interrupts him by pulling his arm. _"Please, don't."_

He sits back on the sidewalk, with an angry expression. _"Tsc! What's the adults' problem?"_

Armin questions him, _"About?"_

Eren angrily replies, _"What's the problem with us liking the Survey Corps?"_

Looking to the sky, Armin says, _"I wonder the same."_

A few birds were flying in the sky, freely passing over the wall. Armin watches them quietly, daydreaming about the Outside, remembering about Levi's promise. That small light of hope makes him happy, distracted by his own mind, imagining how the ocean must look like.

Suddenly, Eren accidentally hits Armin's head with the electric guitar bag, snapping him out of the daydream. Eren says immediately, _"Oh my God! I'm sorry, Armin!"_

" _Its okay, it didn't hurt,"_ Armin says while passing his hand where the bag hit him.

Eren quickly opened the bag and, hidden under the electric guitar, was the autographed magazine.

Mikasa was silently in shock for a few seconds, then, after confirming with her eyes that it actually was the magazine, she yells, _"Eren!? How did you get that?"_

Armin scared like Mikasa, says panicking, _"I thought your mom got all the magazines."_

 _"She did. But I know where she hides them. Hehe."_ Eren says with a sassy smile.

 _"Do you wanna die?"_ Mikasa shouts worried.

 _"Bah! She won't know, I will put back when she's taking a bath."_ Eren says confidently that his plan will work.

 _"When she's what?!"_ an angry voice comes from back them.

Mikasa and Armin quickly turn their heads to look who it is; Carla, facing them very angry with arms crossed.

Eren slowly turns his head to look at his mother. His expression is of pure fear.

 _"MOM?!"_ he yells. _"Aren't you suppose to come from the other side of the street?!"_

Distrustfully, she replies, _"I decided to go to the bank to pay some bills before catching you here."_

Her eyes widen at the moment she spots the magazine on Eren's hands. She quickly takes off the magazine from him; he didn't even have time to react.

 _"No! Give me back!"_ he yells while trying to get the magazine from his mother's hand.

She holds the magazine up high, and with the other hand, she tries to put Eren away. Very angry and harsh, she says, _"No! You're more grounded than before now!"_

Eren gets angry with his mom, but he doesn't say another word, so he doesn't make the situation any worst. Carla calls the kids to follow her; she leads them to meet Armin's grandfather.

 ** _5:46 pm_**

The sunset is hidden behind the walls; the city is being covered by the shadow of the 50 meters stone wall that encircles them. Getting ready for the night, the street lights begin to turn on as soon the walls' shadow reaches them. The local commerce started closing as the streets filled with citizens returning to their houses. At the entrance of the city, the traffic got slightly dense with all kinds of standard transport vehicles, citizens returning home after a long day of work at cities inside the territory of Wall Maria. The train line activity intensifying as well.

While walking, Eren observed the last sun rays passing over the wall. Dispirited, he says in a low tone, _"I wonder... how the sunset really looks like..."_

Armin and Mikasa begin to look at the wall too.

Petulant, Carla says to Eren, _"You don't need to worry about that kind of thing."_

And Eren stops that same moment. Angrily, he begins to yell at his mother, _"What?! What's the problem with you people?! Can someone please tell me the problem with the Outside, other than the Titans?!"_

The people around begin to look at them. Carla got really embarrassed because of her naughty son. _"Eren! Watch your tone! This is not a place to talk about that!"_

Eren, not caring about the surroundings, faced his mother. _"Whatever mom! I'm getting tired of all this cowardice!"_

Carla doesn't know what to do. _"Eren stop! Please!"_

 _"No! You stop! You coward!"_ He shouts so loud that his words even echoes on the street.

The second he finished the phrase, Mikasa turned him around by his shoulder and punched him squarely in the face with all her strength. A punch so powerful that made him fall to the ground.

For his mother, his fall seemed to be in slow motion. That brutal move of the current known as "quiet and sweet girl" paralyzed her mind. Everything she knew about her was wrong? All this time she was just using a mask? And then, her son aggressively yelling at her; his mother. The usually happy, friendly boy now acting the total opposite of what she knew of him. Carla's thoughts were crossing with each other, her line of thinking completely messed up.

Armin, scared just like Carla, couldn't comprehend the reason for all the aggressiveness from Eren and Mikasa. Knowing Mikasa for only three months, he doesn't have enough information to formulate a theory about her. But as for Eren, having known him for two years, he can get to the conclusion that something happened on the backstage.

With the cheek hurting like never before, Eren, still on the ground, dizzying yells at Mikasa, _"What do you think you're doing?!"_

When he looks at her, he is stunned scare. Mikasa is fiercely glaring at him, with a disappointed look in the eyes; she yells attacking him, _"NO! What do YOU think you're doing?! Don't talk to your mom like that!"_

Eren doesn't know how to react, he just slowly get up with the hand on the hurt cheek.

 _"How can you do that?!"_ she continues, _"Your mom is just thinking about your welfare!"_

 _"I don't agree with that!"_ Eren tries to retorts.

Charging her voice, she aggressively screams, _"THAT'S NO EXCUSE! YOU MORON! She doesn't deserve to be treated like that!"_

Eren, out of actions, also runs out of things to say for try to contour that situation. " _Why... why are you saying all those things?!"_

Mikasa's eyes are quickly filled with tears; it's hard, but she tries to speak without crying, _"You... you only discover what you h-had after you lost it! Sniff."_

She can't hold her emotions and shed some tears. She then points to Carla and angrily screams to Eren, _"Now apologize to your mom! YOU FREAKING STUPID IDIOT!"_

The people around are feeling troubled, some even embarrassed.

Eren doesn't have a single idea on how to talk with Mikasa; he just slightly nods to her and turns to his mom. Carla is very embarrassed because of the people around, but at the same time is sad with her son. Something happened, and I wasn't told about it? It's the only thing on her thoughts at the moment.

Eren, ashamed of what he did because of Mikasa's words, barely can look to Carla's face. _"Mom... I..."_

Interrupting their discussion, a massive explosion was heard from the Outside and a tornado made out of fire rise up higher than the wall. The intense heat of the fire could be felt from anywhere inside the city.

Once the tornado dissipates, only a dense black smoke remains in its place.

 ** _Survey Corps' Headquarters (southwest of Wall Rose) - 5:50 PM_**

Levi rushed through the woods using the Wings, flying towards the top of a cliff.

Erwin and four other Corps' members are desperately chasing after him, but they couldn't match Levi's speed, and he was too far away from them already. They can only follow the trail of the gas left by his Wings.

After reach the hill, they can see Levi on the top.

 _"Levi! What the hell you're thinking?"_ Erwin screams while running to the top.

They were all out of breath when they reached him.

Levi strictly looked to the south, scared. He says in a low tone, _"Something is wrong..."_

Erwin says while catching a breath, _"Huu... huu... what?"_

Levi turns to them with a terrified expression and shouts, _"Something bad is going on in Shiganshina!"_

Everyone kept an awkward silence, looking scared at the teenager.

 ** _Shiganshina City - 5:50 PM_**

The heavy black smoke didn't stop, as if it still had something burning on the other side. Everyone inside of the city got nervous about it. Some other people got curious to see what's happening and are getting close to the gate.

The ground began to shake as if it has something massive landed before the gate.

Suddenly, a giant skinless hand arose above the wall and fell over it, destroying all solar panels and cannons. The entire city was in shock, no one could move a single muscle after the appearance of the hand.

Slowly, a skinless head, with flames over it, arose above the wall. It was a sixty meter, skinless, Titan wrapped in flames and black smoke standing higher than the wall shows up. The Titan let a deafening roaring, and from inside his mouth the heat of the sun itself that warms half of the city.

The fire inside his mouth grew, and the massive flames begin to escape. He closed his mouth and lean back. Quickly, the giant titan spits out a massive fireball, which crossed half city and reaches its center square. The fireball blasted the entire square, their flames destroying the nearby buildings at an enormous rate.

 _To be continued..._


	3. Chap 2,1:Peaceful City of Shiganshina

**_Earlier that day..._**

 ** _Survey Corps Headquarters - 04:23 PM_**

At the southwest part of Wall Rose lies the home of Survey Corps. Its size is equivalent to half of a perimetric city but three quarters are filled with a tall forest, and the rest of their territory is for their buildings.

Inside the forest, huge machineries, designed to simulate actual Titans, are resting from the intense training of the soldiers.

The oldest ones, decaying of rustiness, creaks as the wind touches their weakened joints. The noises echoing on the forest, among the low light that passes through the dense tree tops, transformed the peaceful nature place into a suspense movie scenario.

At the top of the highest trees, a cranky teenager is hanging using the wires of his Wings. He swings back and forward like if he was in a rocking chair.

Every time he goes forward, he sings,

 _"Hooow_

 _..._

 _could I_

 _..._

 _Forget my phooooones?!"_

 _Fluffy Ass, pissed, says, "You forgot them inside the pocket of yesterday's jacket, imbecile."_

 _Inside his own mind, Levi is a small and unhealthy skinny kid; just around 9 years old. Many wounds are around his little body, but there are two in particular that hurt more than the others. One on his right hand that is partially destroyed. Missing the last phalange of the forefinger, the middle finger and thumb are also badly wounded and to move these three is quite difficult. The other one is the largest one; it goes from the shoulders to the waist on his back. Those wounds specifically are bleeding all the other ones are just raw open. He sits at an infinite ocean of blood that made no waves. Though the sky above shines with daylight like in real life, but most of the light's rays are hidden behind the dark and heavy clouds carrying silent lightings._

 _With a sad and low voice, he says, "Remind me about that when I go wash the laundry today."_

 _Fluffy Ass replies, "I will."_

 _The fluffy fifteen meters Titan watches the fragile child from the depths of the blood ocean. The absolute silence upon the place is agonizing; the lack of direct light constructs a heavy atmosphere of sorrow and loneliness._

 _Levi looks around slowly moving his head searching for someone, but there's no one else except Fluffy Ass. The sadness in his eyes is deeply carved, like that of an abandoned child in an alley._

 _The Titan looks at him worried. Calmly, he asks, "Why are you still thinking about that?"_

 _"...I don't know..." Levi sadly replies. The wound on his back starts to bleed more than before, making him lay down moaning. He silently cries, squirming in pain._

Levi gradually stopped swinging until his body is left still. His eyes become empty, like if he just had lost someone loved at that moment.

 _This little begins crying; his wounds are hurting too much. His thin muscles allow the wounds to get nearer to his bones, intensifying the pain._

 _The Titan then says worriedly, "There's not a chance that those wounds will at least get a little better? You're at your limit enduring all this pain."_

 _The bony child doesn't speak. He just continues to silently cry. He trembles entirely, lowly moaning in pain, and his "hick's" and "sniff's" echoing loud on that vast empty place around him._

The deep sadness and the mental pain are beginning to rip Levi apart; his eyes fill with tears. He gently hugs himself in an attempt to achieve some comfort.

 _Because his eyes are shut, Levi didn't notice an image being formed at the lake surface in front of him._

 _From the image, voices are heard. Levi slowly opens his eyes to look at it._

 _Recognizing the images, he sees its a recent memory. Struggling against the pain, he tries to get up a little so his head is able to see it better. The Titan can see the memory under the blood as well. This memory is about the trio of kids he met at Shiganshina._

 _The images shows what he had been through with them; when the kids were mocking him because of his funny efforts to not say a mean word. The sound of the kids' laughs echoes for the entire place, filling the air with a happy energy._

 _Levi can't help but make a simple smile, ignoring the crushing pain for a few seconds. While he continues to see more memories about the kids, the pain and the blood leak slowly diminishes, like if their joy were some short of medicine._

 _The Titan's eyes widen with surprise; something new was happening._

 _Levi struggles with his fragile and small body to get up for at least a bit. Unfortunately, his arms don't have strength enough to endure and make him fall on the blood surface shamefully. At the position he fell, he stayed. He's gasping, the pain almost taking over, but it's not so torturing anymore. He tries again to get up, but he fell._

 _He tries one more time._

 _No success again._

 _Very worried and sad, Fluffy Ass says, "Hey... You better stop. You're too weak..."_

 _No longer crying, Levi draws a cigarette from the pocket of his jacket. "I know," he thinks, in response to the Titan._

 _With a low tone, Fluffy Ass says, "Why... why don't you try something different? Why not make a visit to the kids?"_

 _For a few minutes, while smoking, Levi thinks on what the Titan said. He smirks, and says, "Finally something we both agree on Fluffy Ass..."_

Enjoying the forest's silence, Levi slowly smokes, continuing to think on his few memories about of trio. That was his first direct interaction with kids. He couldn't stop thinking and rethinking on those quick moments of joy. Something unprecedented was happening in his mind, he feels it like a small flame was lit on his heart. That brand new feeling took off his will of keeping smoking, he takes the cigarette from his mouth but keeps holding it.

 _"Eren Jaeger..."_ Levi whispers... That name returned to echo in his mind.

After a few minutes of digging his memories, he remembers an image of Eren's father holding a syringe.

He freezes up instantly. He slowly puts his hands on the head and whispers scared, _"Oh... shit... Grisha..."_

Suddenly, interrupting Levi's reasoning and disrupting the silent forest, the sound of pressurized air blows from far behind the teenager, pissing him off, but he continues hanged on the trees. The sound is getting near and all of Levi's peace is fading away. He knows what its coming and that's making him angry.

When the sound gets closer, Erwin among other four Corps' members using their Wings get in sight. They shoot their hooks nearby Levi and using their momentum, the group circulates him. Each one then lands on one of the large branches below the teenager.

The tallest man, one with a simple mustache, shouts angrily, _"You smartass! You know all the blind spots of the cameras, don't you!?"_

Pissed, Levi replies, _"Yes, all twenty-seven spots... Sniffer Dog."_

The man, offended by that nickname, shouts, _"What did you just called me?! You-!"_

 _"Mike! Are you going to give in to his taunts?!"_ Erwin quickly interrupts.

Mike immediately goes silent, his face etched with humiliation. He heads down to Erwin, but not before giving Levi a venomous glare. In return, Levi sent him a debauch smile.

After the exchange, the air around became tense. The five soldiers are on alert, many of them nervously looking at the teenager like he was a treat. On the other hand, Levi was now swinging with the Wings and smoking again. Without much concern for those around him and their attitudes. Levi is aware that he has unfinished matters with his corporal, but he's willing to run away again. But before doing so, he grabs his pack of cigarettes from within his recycled fabric pants. Without hesitation, he destroys it and places its crumpled remains back into his pocket

The blond short-haired woman, disgusted with Levi's smoking habits, says, _"Why are you destroying your lungs with that crap so young?"_

Levi hides his smile with the hand as the lowly laughs at the woman. Mocking her, he says smiling, _"Oh... heh heh. Miss Sniffer Dog... I've been smoking for two years and my lungs are fucking fine. It's not gonna be like this shit will kill me just like that! 'He' won't let me die from such a stupid thing."_

Ignoring the nonsense nickname, the woman asks confused, _"'He'? 'He' who? Are you talking about God? I didn't know you were religious."_

 _"I'm not. I'm agnostic,"_ Levi says crankily. He slowly turns his eyes to Erwin and says serious, _"He knows who I'm talking about."_

All the others soldiers turn their looks to Erwin, though he's not shaken by that. He's glaring at Levi, daring him with his eyes, showing that he's his superior and demands respect.

Unfortunately, Levi is simply ignoring that, and, instead, swings by Erwin to mock the man. _"Oh, come on, Eyebrows! Are you not gonna tell them? It was because of 'him' that you put your ass at risk on that hell down there in the capital. Heh-heh-heh."_

 _"What is he talking about, Sir?"_ The woman asks worriedly.

 _"Nothing to worry about for now, Jenna"_ , Erwin says calmly.

Suddenly, Levi turns on his Wings, about to run away. _"Levi! Wait!"_ shouted Erwin quickly. He then moves towards the young man and shouts scornfully, _"Are you really going to flee away again?"_

Levi doesn't move a muscle; he looks at Erwin from above angrily, and slowly takes a deep breath trying to obtain some patience.

Erwin, concerned about Levi's unstable mental state, carefully attempts to do some conversation. _"Just hold on a minute, Levi, please. We want to understand what is happening. You're not the same person we met four months ago. It's because of what happened on your first expedition? Is that it?"_

 _"People change,"_ Levi says quickly and rude.

 _"But not from water to oil so fast like you did"_ Erwin counters. _"It's crystal clear to everyone that you're not fine."_

Without looking at him, Levi says annoyed, _"And why are you so worried about it?"_

 _"It's because we matter with you"_ said the woman with glasses. _"We are your partners... friends, possibly. We worry about each other... right?"_ She looks to the others and they all nod in agreement.

Suddenly, Levi let go out a loud debauch laugh, confusing the soldiers. Levi was slipping out from reality, the madness slowly consuming his thoughts.

With a widened, insane smile, Levi laughed madly and, mocking all of them, he shouts, _"That's... The best...BULLSHIT I've heard in years! Thanks for making me laugh, Four-eyes."_ Still laughing, he cleans his tears with a piece of fabric.

Shocked and embarrassed by Levi's laughs, the woman says, _"B-but... it's the truth..."_

 _"Hanji, stop. He's losing his sanity, there's no use talking to him like this"_ , said the black-bearded man.

 _"Tatsuo is right. Don't insist, Hanji,"_ Erwin reinforced.

 _"No no no, I'm totally sane"_ Levi insisted. The smile on his face is replaced with an angry snarl. _"If we were actually friends you all would be dead by this time..."_

The soldiers were shocked. Levi's sudden change of mood had thrown them off completely. His words did not make any sense to them, and they are all thinking that he's crazy. Thus, the young unhinged man garnered a couple of nervous expressions. They remained quiet though which allowed Levi to begin discreetly planning a route to flee.

Knowing more details about the teenager than everyone else, as well as worried about his instability, Erwin tries to find a way to avoid conflict among between the group and Levi. And also, already mentally preparing to stop any running away attempts. He had to be careful though, any precipitated move could mess up everything.

Erwin tries to talk with him, hiding his nervousness. He says slowly and calmly, _"Levi... please... listen to what you're saying. None of this is normal for you. We all remember how you were."_

Levi angrily snarls at Erwin. Thunder could be heard far in the sky. He moves his body as he retrieves the swords' cable from the Wings.

Desperate, Erwin tries to hold his attention. _"Wait! Don't go! Listen to what we have to say!"_

Now, Levi runs out of patience, he ends up pissed off by all that insistence. Exploding with anger, he yells to his superior, _"Fuck you, Erwin! Leave me alone, you motherfucker!"_

Everyone gasped with shock by how completely disrespectful and impulsive reaction of the young soldier.

Before anyone could realize, Levi rewinds the Wings' wires and by quickly began spinning the body. He then shoots the hooks on a tree behind. A large amount of gas is suddenly released, launching him far away from the veterans.

 _"LEVI!"_ Erwin screams panicked. _"Oooh..shit! Everyone after him!"_ He orders to his soldiers.

Immediately, the group flies after Levi as fast as they could go with their own Wings. Swinging from tree to tree, they begin a rushed hunt over the rebel teenager.

Even with way less time on the military than the veterans, Levi was far more skilled natural; his swift moves were too fast and complex to be followed.

The veterans begin to make a different formation, trying to surround Levi. Aware of the impending attack, he changes his route. He instead ascends towards a fifteen-meter high machine.

 _'Fuck this shit!'_ he yells internally.

He launches himself at the machine's head. After performing a flip in the air, he lands with both hands over it. In a small fraction of a second, electricity spreads through his arms to the machine. Instantly after, he pushed himself off the machine as it begins to turn on.

The veterans, coming from behind, are surprised by the rising arms of the machine. As they were trained to that move on the Titans' battlefield, they can easily dodge them. Some using the nearby branches to go up while the others moved around the tree trunks.

 _"Who turned on that machine?!"_ Tatsuo screams confused.

Although Erwin knows the answer, he just orders to his soldiers, _"Don't mind that! Just go after Levi!"_

Blasting gas out of their Wings, they rushed faster as they could after Levi but unfortunately, because of the machine they were delayed and Levi was moving out of their sight. The unbelievable speed of the teenager with his air moves was making his veterans, but mainly Erwin, desperate. They could not let him run away again from his responsibilities as a soldier.

With a sassy smile on his face, Levi is already counting this as his victory, like of a kid who fled from a scolding. Suddenly, he feels like as if time was slowing down. That everything is moving slower, even himself. He senses something, from far away to the south, like a signal. An energy he never felt before. A negative feeling that sent a chill down his spine, nearly freaking him out. He knows something bad is going on, but he can't figure out what it is. Although, he knew one thing; that signal was coming from Shiganshina.

All that he had sensed took less than a second, but it was like an entire minute for him. Now completely changing his objective, his expression becomes braver. He fully believed in not only his instinct but his sixth sense that had rarely steered him wrong.

His eyes' sclera turns black, his iris begin to glow like a neon light, his pupils' shape transforms into a vertical slit kind, and his body becomes surrounded by small bursts of electricity under his command.

He overcharges his Wings using the electricity, making it release a greater amount of gas than it should at maximum charge. This gave him a speed boost that enhanced his already fast air movements. He changes his route to head south, and right towards a cliff. His new destination had also made him reencounter the veterans.

Fast as lightning, he passed over them in a second. At the instant he passed them, a large static field formed around him that reached the veterans. The energy began to affect the veteran's equipment. The machines begin to blink warningly before making the veterans lose the control of their flight. Those instants of fright lasted shortly as they quickly corrected themselves thanks to their achieved experience. They perfectly kept their equilibrium within the wires and also maintained their position and direction. They all landed safely on a large branch, but they all were gasping from shock.

Erwin, angry with Levi, blurted, _"How could he?!"_

Everyone else stops for a few seconds, processing what their Captain just said.

 _"Hold on!"_ Mike shouts to Erwin. _"He did that with our equipment?"_

Erwin winced when he realized what he just let out. After regaining his breath, he tells to his soldiers, _"I will explain after we get him. Now, let's go!"_

He jumps off the branch and flies out towards the south to follow Levi. His soldiers, a bit distrustful after hearing his words, regardlessly follow right behind him.

They were unable to match Levi's speed, and he was already too far from them. They could only follow the trail of the gas left behind by his Wings. At the end of the trail, they reach a hill, where they can see Levi on the top.

Having nearly lost his patience, Erwin screams while running, _"Levi! What the hell you're thinking?"_

Everyone else followed after Erwin. The hill is a tough climb. They were all already gasping because of the unwanted chase. By the time they reached the top, they were all out of breath. Yet, at the top, they find Levi strictly looking to the south.

Scared, he says in a frightened tone, _"Something is wrong..."_

Erwin says while trying to catch a breath, _"Huu... huu... what?"_

Levi turns to them with a terrified expression and shouts, _"Something bad is going on in Shiganshina!"_

Everyone kept an awkward silence, looking scared at the teenager.

 _"And that's how you pretend to change the subject?"_ Mike shouts angrily.

Levi frowned as he stared at them. He hadn't forgotten his unfinished matters, but right now his sixth sense was more important for him.

While Levi, unfortunately, stutters in trying to explain, Erwin cuts him off first. He shouts, _"Hey listen, Levi!"_

He slowly walks towards Levi. Despite his anger, Erwin keeps his voice tone under control. He did not want to yell something he shouldn't again. He continues, annoyed, _"If you pretend to play the rebel teenager, fine. Then, I will treat you like one for now on. Your plan of make us give up through annoyance is not going to work. I know you're more mature than that!"_

 _"Well... Not exactly," Fluffy Ass says awkwardly._

As every second passes, Levi becomes increasingly more apprehensive. His instincts were tingling like never before. If what he was sensing whatever it was from this far, it was certainly a colossal threat. He were fretting; nervously rubbing his hands as he swaying slightly on his feet. His skin was even beginning to pale at the idea. He looked like he had seen a ghost, and it spooked none other than Erwin.

Erwin knew clearly how to read body language, but he was distrustful of the teenager. He wasn't sure if all that he was seeing was real unease or if the rebel was just acting to get away again.

 _"Why are you so nervous now?"_ he asks reluctantly.

Nervously stuttering and pointing to the south, he tries to explain, "I-I-It's Shiganshina! Something bad is upon them!"

The soldiers exchange incredulous looks at each other. They couldn't believe in Levi's words. Is he acting or was he that serious? They couldn't tell.

Getting impatient with that entire scene, Erwin begins to slowly get close to Levi. _"And how do you expect us to believe in you? What proof do you have?"_ he says in an aggravated tone.

Silently chocked, Levi low down his voice, _"I-I can't explain... It's just...a feeling..."_

 _"Really?"_ Erwin shot. _"After everything you've done in the past few days, do you seriously expect us to believe in that?"_

Levi remained quiet. He just kept looking at the face of his superior with the same scared look in the eyes. The other soldiers were patiently waiting. They dare not get in the middle of the discussion now that their superior was clearly out of patience.

 _"If you disobey me one more time, I will have to punish you for insubordination. Now let's go back to the HQ."_ He turns his back to Levi and head to the headquarters, but Levi doesn't move a muscle. Knowing this, he shouts back, _"It's an order, Levi!"_

 _"No."_

Everyone was petrified by that dry and cold answer that came from the teenager's mouth. They then looked over at their commander. Calmly, Erwin takes a deep breath and slowly turns to Levi.

Levi is looking back at Erwin fiercely. He was completely convinced now of his choice. " _No, Erwin. I will not ignore my instincts... Not again..."_ he says confidently.

Levi takes off the glove from his left hand and put in a pocket. Erwin steps back in fright. He knew what was coming and he quickly threw up a hand signal to the others for them to step back. They don't understand but obey the signal anyway.

Erwin then quickly shouts, _"LEVI! WAIT!"_

But he doesn't listen this time. His eyes change the appearance like in moments ago and a strong energy bolt from his feet launches him backward off the cliff.

Erwin quickly hollered out, _"Everyone down!"_

In mid-air, Levi bites his hand with everything he has, blood dripping with blood from the self-inflicted wound. Immediately, lightning strikes down from above. It hits Levi, sending a surge of energy through his body.

Erwin and his soldiers quickly lay down on the ground protecting their heads. The tremendous light made the five soldiers temporary blinded and deaf.

 ** _Shiganshina City - 5:51 PM_**

Shiganshina was Hell.

The flames that burned through the central square are now spreading through the city. Citizens are running desperately to save their lives. Entire families are leaving their houses and everything behind. The sunset light that was covering the city was substituted by the light of the furious fire that was destroying everything in its path. Every vehicle at the entrance is reversing or changing into the other side of the road. Mass transit vehicles, such as buses and vans, are gathering as many citizens as they could carry and rushing to the entrance. It didn't matter the social status, religion, sexual orientation, skin color or even the age; all humans that were fleeing the city were like pitiful bugs running from the nest on fire. Everyone was running for the open territory behind Wall Maria.

The chaos was only just starting. It made worst as a giant Titan appeared like a fireball atop the giant wall that surrounded the city.

Within the city, the three little ones grab onto Carla in a panicking fright. All of them make a run from the chaos. They are crying scared terrifying giant Titan covered in smoke gazed down upon the chaos from over the Wall.

Appearing from the crowd in despair, Armin's grandfather comes rushing down the street. _"CARLA! KIDS!"_ he screams frightened.

 _"Grampa!"_ Armin screams crying as he runs to his grandfather desperately.

The old man, gasping exhaustively, immediately holds Armin safe within a hug. His knees were hurting from aging, but he holds tight his grandson and ignores the pain.

 _"Hu... huu... Is everyone okay?"_ he asks breathlessly.

Chocked and out of thoughts, Carla says low, _"Ti...Tiberius...Y-Yes... We are."_

Eren says trembling with a frightened voice, _"Levi was right..."_

 _"What?!"_ Carla asked confoundedly.

Suddenly, another huge fireball crosses the sky. The whole city freezes with fear at the sight. No one moved a single muscle as they watched the mass of fire hurdle down. The intense heat of the flames can be felt by everyone beneath its path downward.

 _BOOM!_

The fireball destroyed the buildings in front of the central square. The impact made several more buildings collapsed into burning ashes, and had highly increased the human death toll.

The giant Titan snorts. He looked down into the square engulfed in his flames and appeared annoyed. Like he not have achieved what he wanted. He takes some steps back from the wall. Each step so heavy the entire city could feel the ground shake and tremble. Behind the skinless Titan, a large hoard of smaller Titans of all different shapes and sizes remained quiet behind him. They seemed to be waiting for something. The giant Titan places the palms of his hands towards the wall. The flesh of his arms begins to grow, the fibers accompany the tendons towards his hands. When his hands were completely covered, the flesh continues to form a cylinder shape. At this point, the flesh begins to open in four parts like a flower blooming. Inside, many small and pointy teeth made of cartilage and a hole in the middle. His hands and arms have now taken the form of a Wurm's head. In between the flesh fibers, an orange light glows and smoke starts to escape from inside the muscles. Finally, a long and continuous spit-like fire comes out of the holes; the giant Titan turned into a fifty meters high walking double flamethrower.

Aimed at the gate, the large fire cone burns through the entire wall. The strong scent of burning rock and metal begins to spread all over Shiganshina, increasing the chaos inside the city. Everyone was now fighting for they survival at the entrance. The high increase of vehicles and people at the entrance gate is intensifying the traffic, and reducing the speed and, slowly, the roads' flow is stopping. People stampeding over each other, pushing others out of the way, and many suffocating in the dense crowd. In this moment of desperation, mankind simply forgot their humanity and now they fight for survival like desperate prey fleeing from their hunters.

Meanwhile, Carla and Tiberius are desperately running with their kids away from far the south gate. Trying to avoid all the other people in the panic. They were ironically were running into a lot of difficulties because of the short steps of their little ones. Eren and Mikasa had to be pulled by Carla through the crowd. Armin, the slowest, is being carried by his grandfather which was slowing him down.

Eren made a quick look back to the gate and is mesmerized by the image of the white wall turning orange bright.

 _"This way!"_ Carla screams out quickly as she changes her route. She continues holding tight Eren and Mikasa as they now head in a new direction.

Though confused, Tiberius follows her regardlessly with Armim still in his arms. _"Where you're going? The gate is to the other way!"_ The old man hollers at her.

 _"Everyone is heading that way! I know another path!"_ She yells, smiling confidently.

Tiberius widened his eyes because of the calmness and confidence of Carla on that chaotic place. _"So! The 'Skull Crusher' still has her tricks? Haha!"_ he yells jovially.

 _"I'm just a little rusty! It's been nine years!"_ she replies smirking.

None of the kids can understand their talking, mainly Eren, he's the most confused about them. _'Why did he call Mommy that? Is it something from before I was born?'_ is just one of the many questions clouding Eren's thoughts.

Suddenly, a strong boom is heard from the south gate soon followed by shaking. This immediately paralyzed the entire city. The giant Titan was now rushing against the Wall weakened by his flames. He launches his body against the wall once again, and like an earthquake, he makes the entire city shake with his impact. Huge cracks form on the stone wall but it resists strongly against the strength of the Titan.

The chaos grows worst at the entrance of the city. Now, even the soldiers of the Garrison Troops that should be controlling the crowds are running away. Without order, the crowd becomes even more uncontrolled. People are being crushed, suffocated, and killed by the by their fellow man. The gate can no longer support such mass like this, and the abandoned vehicles are only making the passage through even more difficult. The people arriving from the far perimeters of the city are stopping near the deadly crowd with nowhere else to go. The entire population of Shiganshina had trapped themselves in the city

From the giant Titan, it made one more hit against the wall. It breaks the large iron chain mechanism that holds the huge stone gate sending it hurtling down. It crashes sending up a dense cloud of dust. The everyone stops upon hearing the impact. Absolute silence has fallen over the city at that instant.

Outside, the giant Titan steps back farther than before. It then runs fast as it can against the wall.

In the next moment, everything became like slow motion for everyone.

The colossal Titan smashes through the wall. As he goes through, he brings the pieces of the wall with his momentum. The wind rushes in every direction. Destroying many windows and cracking many smaller buildings from the wall to the nearly the center of the whole city. The debris from the impact smashed many buildings, including the Jaegers' house, around the nearest town squares. As the rest of the wall segment was falling, the sun rays begin illuminating the city from behind the giant with a numbing orange light.

Carla and Tiberius shield their kids with their own bodies to protect them from the wind impact and debris. The wind carried a heavy dust cloud mixed with burning ash that blew over the central square and then the town itself. The dense cloud of dust then rose higher; even higher than the Titan.

The Titan slowly begins walking. Its large size making it easy to walk over the pile of white shining rocks. The dust blurring his image while only letting out the occasional ray of the dusk light. This all turned him like flaming grim reaper coming to collect the souls of the damned. Leaving the broken gates of the wall behind him like said reaper leaving Hell itself.

Among it, a large hoard of smaller Titans follows him to inside the city. The giant Titan then raises his hand like a signal to the other Titans. _"Go!"_ he roars out with a thunderous voice.

Instantly, all the other Titans run towards the concentrated crowd at the entrance gate. The ash and dust cloud cover their speedy approach from humans; yet, they could feel the ground shaking with each step from every Titan moving. Along the way, any lost humans they found on their way were killed without mercy. Stomped, crushed, bitten in half; each Titan had their own peculiarities on killing humans.

Meanwhile, lost in the middle of the chaos, Eren slowly open his eyes trying to see what's happening. He can barely keep his eyes open with all the dust in the air. The others among him try to do the same.

Unfortunately, the dust cloud blocked their sight for more than 3 meters of distance, and the destruction of the Wall made them nearly deaf. All the could hear is a constant ringing while the sounds around them were nothing less than weak and faded noises; completely indistinguishable. The heat of the fire is being intensified and can be felt at anywhere inside the city because of the dust transforming the city into a huge pan.

The lamp posts begin to come alive with light as the sunlight faded away to make way for the rising night. A weakened light from the lamps shines through the dust and forms a faded path of light that revealed the street.

Looking around, Carla quickly recognized the path. _"Quick! This way!"_ she shouts to everyone else and pulls Eren and Mikasa.

Tiberius follows her. He is still holding Armin - with difficulty - and the dust is making him and everyone's breathing more difficult.

Carla is leading then to the northeast area of the city, far from the entrance gate. The kids and Tiberius begin to cough the further the reach they reach the center of the city. The fire around them soon made the air hot and heavy. They need to stop to take a breath, but with the conditions as they are only Carla could breathe properly. Worst, these conditions were making it harder for Tiberius to properly breath.

 _"Come on! We can't stop here!"_ Carla yells, trying to get them to move.

The kids can walk, but Tiberius, too tired already, needs to make Armin run by himself since his strength is on the limit to keep caring him. When everyone stopped they all felt the ground shaking. Screeches and moans can be heard coming from where they had come.

 _"Titans..."_ Carla whispers frightened. _"Let's go! They are coming to us!"_

They begin to move but not by much. The kids can hardly keep up with her. Carla needed to release Eren to help Armin. She knew that her son could follow her, even with his electric guitar on his back. But to her despair, Tiberius is getting too far behind. They needed to stop to wait for him.

 _"Tiberius! Come on man!"_ Carla screams at him.

Tiberius could not reply back as his breath was far too short. He still tried with all his might to catch up, but with the legs hurting he could only move so fast.

Suddenly, from within the dust cloud, a bus came flying out. It hits the building right on their side, partially destroying the building and ripping itself down the middle. The wreckage falls in their direction. In a matter of seconds, Carla quickly pushed the kids away and the entire wreckage falls over her.

The kids, having received some scratches from the rough asphalt, were saved from the wreckage by some centimeters. While the others slowly recovered, Eren quickly gets up in fright. He looks for his mother to no avail. He now runs around desperately, calling for her as he does, into the wreckage. Eventually, he hears her call from within the middle of the destroyed metal carcass of the bus. With her shouts guiding him, he finds her trapped in a space underneath, but he can't reach it. He takes off his guitar and gives to Armin and then proceeds to slip through the wreckage. Mikasa sneaks in right after Eren.

Heavy stomps, accompanied by the strong sound of metal scratching the ground, are getting closer to them. Tiberius quickly pulls Armin into a nearby alley to hide.

 _"But! They are still there!"_ Armin yells, worried about the three inside the wreckage.

Nervous, Tiberius whispers, _"They will be fine, trust me. Carla is conscious. Now keep quiet."_

There's something special about Carla that the little ones didn't know, that was bugging Armin, but that was not the time to think about that. He holds tight Eren's guitar bag and though scared, he stays quiet with his grandfather in the alley.

Inside the wreckage, Eren and Mikasa are trying to raise the large metal plate that fell over Carla's left leg. Eren and Mikasa are trying everything they have for help Carla, but not even a thousand adult men would be able to move this much weight.

The kids are hurting their arms and hands with the heavy metal.

Aware of this, Carla cries out desperately, _"Children, please! Stop! You're only hurting yourselves!"_

But, they don't listen and continue to try to release her leg, their little hands were already bleeding because of the sharp metal.

Carla then realized that the 'soft mother' tone would not help her this time. She thus yelled out in a new demanding tone, _"I SAID STOP! THAT'S AN ORDER!"_

The kids get scared of her scream and stop it right away. Neither had ever heard the woman behave so authoritative like that.

 _"Mommy..."_ Eren whimpers. _"We-we need to get you out of here and quick!"_

Seeing how that at least got her kids attention, Carla takes a deep breath to think in something. Although she looks very calm, on the inside she was near panicking. With her leg stuck like so, she could slightly move her torso to look at the kids.

Eren and Mikasa are now crying and terribly frightened with their hands hurting. Both worried about her and paralyzed by her calmness. They don't know what to do next.

Carla then says tranquility, _"Don't worry my sweeties, help is on the way."_

The kids are shocked by her words. Neither could believe how calm their mother was being right now.

The scratching metal sound continues. It breaks Carla's calm act that she had displayed for her children. The sound was getting closer and closer. Then, suddenly, the concrete plate that was over the bus is removed. Seen through the hole, a Titan with feminine characteristics appeared and looking at them through the open wreckage. The missing lips on the Titan give it a huge smiling from cheek to cheek and the frowned black sclera eyes appearing that she was having fun with this apocalyptic situation.

The kids were immobile. All their muscles weren't responding to their will of run away.

Carla lets out a "tsk" sound before putting her hand inside her slightly large purse.

The Titan stares at the group for a short moment. Almost like it was trying to comprehend them. Then, the blond-haired Titan raised her hand and extended it down wide opened towards them as it attempted to grab someone.

With a fierce shine in the eyes and a brave look on her face, Carla quickly pulls out from her purse a shiny, silver and green nine-millimeter automatic pistol with the emblem of the _ **Military Police.**_ She bravely yells, "Like Hell, we're going to die like this!" And then shots, piercing precisely the left eye of the Titan.

The Titan screams out in pain from the wound and it runs away half blind. Destroying everything on her way. The screams call the attention of the other Titans, and the giant one as well that now walks in their direction.

 _"Have a nice time with that Rosemary bullet, you wallfucker!"_ Carla yells victorious.

The kids snapped out of their trance after that, but now they are once again stunned now by Carla's surprise.

 _To be continued..._


	4. Chap 2,2:Peaceful City of Shiganshina

The flames from the central square began to spread faster to the north when a strong wind current blew from the outside, passing through the wide open hole made by the giant Titan. The city was slowly being covered by the ashes from the center, while the temperature was rising because of the dense dust cloud.

The chaos is out of control at the entrance gate. Most of the Garrison Soldiers had fled using the maintenance corridors within the Walls. Any other soldiers that remained did not know what to do with the entire population trying to come in all at once. As the Titans approached the crowd, the screams of the Titan wounded by Carla attracted their attention. They all stopped what they were doing and walked to the place of the confront.

Back with our group, the Rosemary scent that originated from Carla's gun is all around them, slightly covering the smell of ash from the central square. After the Titan had run away, Tiberius and Armin rush into the bus carcass to find Carla, Eren, and Mikasa. Once inside, they found the kids paralyzed with shock as they stared at the gun in Carla's hands. As for the women, she was laughing almost pathetically as she could not believe how perfect her shot had been.

Armin tries to ask, " _Are you all-?_ "

" _Oh my God, Carla!_ " Tiberius yells scared.

Hearing the man, Carla stopped laughing. She began again to laugh, only now nervously. Carla says awkwardly, _"Yeah... I probably just lost my leg...but it was worth it!"_

 _"Mommy! How can you say that?!"_ Eren yells confused.

The boy had just witnessed his mother have a sudden change of behavior in such a short time to something like he never seen before. Almost like she was acting like a soldier. He never imagined she would be as brave enough to face such threat as a Titan so fearlessly. No ordinary person would have the courage to do that so.

Lowering her tone for not scare her son again, she says slowly, _"Sorry, sweetie, you wouldn't understand being so young like this..."_

Eren begins to shed tears out of control; the fear was consuming him like a parasite. He is feeling cold, despite the heat around. He wanted to scream and cry, but his panic closed his throat like someone suffocating him.

Mikasa slowly moves her head to look around. The area is wholly desolated and looks like a war zone. She had seen scenes of these in the movies that she and Eren had watched, but now it's real, and they were living those moments in reality. Crying now out of fright, she goes to Eren seeking some comfort. She extends her arms to him, and he responds hugging her tightly, sheltering her in his arms. They both begin to cry desperately, their moans and sniffs are the only sound around.

Carla lays down her forehead on the ground, ashamed because of the situation she got stuck. 'Where's that asshole?' she thinks angrily, afraid that the children's 'savior' would not come.

Tiberius is quiet, thinking about the last minutes of despair. Just like Carla, he was unnerved by the fact Titans are inside the Walls. What was more important now was the safety of their children.

Armin is holding tight his grandfather's arm. Fear, confusion, panic; a considerable mix of negative feelings are starting to make him crazy. Adrenaline was flowing through his body that made him unable to calm down.

Their peaceful life inside the Walls had turned into a hell in a snap of fingers. Their world had been ripped apart without mercy.

Then, breaking their moment of reflection came a familiar scratching metal sound, but this time accompanied with the shaking of heavy stomps. Carla, even while stuck down in the ground, knew what was coming. She is already had her gun in hand and ready to shoot any Titan coming.

The stomps and the sound are getting closer and closer until a fifteen meters high Titan appears in front of them. It was skinless like the giant one but this time with short white hair and the physique of a strongman. He was dragging a large truck behind him that was scratching the ground as he moved. The Titan was slowly getting closer to them. His stomps shaking the ground like an earthquake as the sound of the scratching metal was hurting everyone's ears.

The Titan stops very near to them and begins sniffing for something. Then, he slowly empties his lungs. The air passing through his throat sounded like someone blowing air through a metal pipe.

 _"Rosemary..."_ he whispers with a thunderous voice, though the group could hear it.

Everyone is shocked with that. A Titan, a creature known as irrational and deathly by the ordinary folk, just spoke a word.

The talking Titan turns his head to them and, even from far, they could see his bright yellow iris on his black sclera eyes. Scared, the kids begin to cry in a silenced panic. Tiberius gets in front of them as an attempt to shield them. Carla is still not demonstrating any fear, even in the position she was in, she stares at the Titan bravely with slight apprehension in her eyes.

Glaring, the tall creature looks right down at Carla. _"You..."_ he said slowly. _"You know about Rosemary..."_

Carla gulped.

 _"So, do you know him..."_

An actual Titan was speaking human language. It was showing unbelievable human intelligence and talking to her.

 _"Where are them?"_ The Titan asks with a more aggravated tone.

 _"It's none of your business,"_ Carla replies angrily as well.

The Titan snorts angrily at her and releases the truck. He then kneels to get his head closer to them.

 _"Where are the fragments and Grisha Jaegar?!"_ He asks angrily.

 _*missing artwork*_

His breath passed over them like a wind blow; a stinky wind blow that scents like gastric acid and rotten meat mixed, leaving everyone nauseous. The kids' face turns pale as snow because of the unease. Armin even had to hold himself from throw up.

Confused and nauseous, Eren innocently asks his mother, _"How does he know Daddy?"_

Carla grumbled apprehensively. The situation was now getting out of her control. There were secrets that she was not ready to let come to light.

When the Titan gets up, the dense air displacement unbalanced the kids, making them fall to the ground.

 _"Oh... 'Daddy'?"_ The Titan says surprised. _"Ha, ha, then let me be more direct with you..."_ He extends his hand towards the kids, to pinch one of them.

 _"RUN!"_ Tiberius and Carla scream in panic.

The kids try to run away from the giant hand, but they aren't agile enough to pass over the wreckage. Unfortunately, Eren could not make it through in time and got caught by the Titan.

Everyone screams desperately. Mikasa wanted to stop the Titan's hand, but the wind that the rising hand created upon lift blows her to the ground.

Eren screams in panic. He begins punching the Titan's finger in a useless attempt to get away. In the Titans light grip, the boy starts to feel the heat emanating from the creature. It starts to make him breathless and sweaty.

Desperate, Carla aimed her gun at the Titan's eye. But he looks at her and threats, _"If you shoot, I squeeze him!"_

As a demonstration, the talking Titan begins to squish Eren slowly. Although he's not using much strength, the child felt an immense pressure accompanied by heat. Eren was unable to scream because the force constricted his breathing. He tries to struggle to get out, but the searing thermal energy was consuming his strength quickly. After only a few seconds, he vomits on the Titan's finger. In witnessing all of this, Carla immediately releases her gun. The Titan stops at the same instant upon seeing this.

Now, Eren was able to regain enough breath to scream, and he bursts into tears desperately like a newborn baby. If it were possible, Carla would have already killed the Titan with her gaze alone, her face was the perfect definition of rage. She wanted to discharge all the bullets from her gun into his face, but for the sake of her child, she remained immobile.

Becoming impatient with Carla's resistance, he yells enraged, _"Now... Where are the fragments of the SHIGEKI NO KYOJIN?!"_

His raging scream echoed out far. Even the giant Titan nearby the destroyed Wall could hear it, and the other Titans stopped their walking. The sound reached the entrance gate like a clap of thunder, making the citizens silent for a few seconds as they tried to comprehend what is going on. The kids can't stop crying as they became worried about Eren while at the same time they're petrified with the menacing creature.

Carla stutters apprehensive divided by her priorities. She can't tell the Titan what he wants, but her child's life is at risk. In the end, her love for her son spoke louder. _"T-They... They are..."_

Suddenly, from far in the sky, lightning struck the Titan. The light and sound of the natural force had temporarily deafening and blinding everyone. When finished, the Titan had become paralyzed as his muscles became immobilized by the energy. Fast as lightning, Levi appears jumping from a building and shoots a pair of hooks from his wings at the Titan's left shoulder. He then let gravity do its job, sending him to behind the Titan and as he neared the ground Levi uses a vast amount of gas as he releases the hooks, launching him to higher than the Titan.

From up above, he aims for the Titan's right arm. He then spins very fast and cuts off the tendons of the elbow, forcing the Titan's hand to open. Eren immediately falls, but Levi reacted quickly. In mid-air, he spins towards the building on his side and grabs the hooks on it. Swiftly rewinding the cables, Levi releases a significant amount of gas and flies towards Eren. He precisely catches the boy in the air. Though there was some difficulty in holding Eren, Levi managed it and landed on a nearby building.

The paralysis on the Titan ends, and he roars loud in pain because of the cut made by Levi. He steps back dizzily as the electrical discharge begins to fade away.

Carla feels some relief now that the promising help finally came. The others are stunned, surprised with the sudden appearance of their soldier friend. Levi, hanging in a horizontal position, is holding Eren close.

The kid was now crying in relief and happiness, hugging Levi tightly. His hero just saved his life.

To calm down the boy, Levi strokes his back and hug him back. _"It's okay now. It's okay..."_ he whispers softly.

 _"Hey!"_ He then calls the attention of the Titan.

When the Titan spot him hanging on the building, the teenager shows him the middle finger with the left hand. The Titan makes a confused expression, like if he didn't understand what that signal meant.

Suddenly, a feline-like roar comes from behind the building Levi jumped off. A fluffy white domestic cat with the same size of the Titan, possessing horns, sharp tusks, black sclera eyes with blue iris, and surrounded by electricity appears and jumps over the Titan.  
The cat destroys the ground using the Titan, smashing his chest against the hard asphalt.

In a snap of fingers, the cat transforms into a wolf while maintaining the previous uncommon characteristics. It grabs the Titan through his throat. He furiously drags him, scratching his back against the ground, down the street. After taking a reasonable distance from the group, it throws him into a building.

Everything happened so fast that the Titan didn't have time to think about how to defend itself. Under the wreckage he tries to self-heal his wounds, steam starts to come up from them, except the one made by Levi.

 _"Kick the shit out of him!"_ Carla screams pumped, thirst for revenge.

 _"With pleasure!"_ Levi says with an angrily sassy smile.

When the Titan gets up, slightly dizzy, the wolf already transformed into a bear of his size, still maintaining his unusual characteristics. The once confident and brave monster just become immobile of fright, like if he just saw his worst nightmare.

The bear roars loud like an extended thunderclap accompanied by lightning in the sky.

The Titan snap out of his frightened state right after and responds roaring back. He clenches his fist, but the injury on his right arm saps his strength, thus panicking him.

In the next second, he receives an ascended punch charged with high voltage electricity from the bear, right on his chin. The bear claws destroy his muscles and skull as it passes through. The instant the sharp nails finished their pass-through, the charged electricity explodes with many bolts of lightning falling over the Titan at the same time.

The sizeable electric blast combination launches the Titan more than a kilometer away, dragging everything with him; buildings, asphalt, vehicles. Every building he smashes through falls apart.

Following the flying Titan on his way, many lightning bolts go falling over him. He ends his flight near the feet of the giant Titan. The last, and most significant, discharge then drops over the giant Titan's head, dizzying him.

The sixteen-meter creature growls in pain as it tries to stand up. Not being able to regain equilibrium, he begins to release a lot of steam. He then begins to shrink, getting smaller and smaller until reach fifteen meters high.

Those seconds of destruction made all the other ordinary Titans retreat from the place where the other two, apparently superior, Titans had fallen.

Levi and Carla laughs and screams victorious from the perfect move the bear just made, totally ignoring the destruction. Eren, having a privileged view, is hypnotized by what he just witnessed. 'Does mankind always had that kind of thing on their side? What is that?' Eren's mind was filled with questions trying to understand what is that white and fluffy creature that came with his hero.

 _"That's..?"_ Tiberius can barely speak, stunned by what just happened.

Still laughing, Carla answers Tiberius unfinished question, _"Yeeeah... hehehe!"_

Armin and Mikasa are more confused after what they heard. They begin to exchange confused looks, questioning with the eyes: _'Do they know about that?!'_

The bear turns away from his destruction and runs towards our group. While he runs, his body was transforming again. He begins to assume a human shape, his paws turned into hands and feet, the long snout turned into a nose and mouth, and his face lost the fur. He still kept the same base characteristics of before; white coat over the body, horns, long tusks and black sclera.

When he gets close to them, he finishes his transformation and now stands like a human. The kids were confused, but Carla and Tiberius were amazed; the shape-shifting monster turned out to be a Titan.

But this wasn't an ordinary Titan, that was Fluffy Ass. The Titan that only existed inside Levi's mind was real now, with flesh, bones and everything else; except a complete digestive system and reproduction system, since Titans doesn't have it.

He gently extends his hand to Eren and Levi, for they hop on. But Eren, still scared with what happened to him a minute ago, holds on Levi very tight.

 _"It's okay, he's with me,"_ Levi says calmy as he tries to calm down Eren stroking his back. _"This is Fluffy Ass, Eren. MY Titan."_

Fluffy Ass moves his other hand like if he was raising a hat, like a gentleman presentation.

Trusting in his hero, Eren slowly slides down from Levi's torso and falls in one of the Titan's soft paw pads he has on his hands. Levi jumps afterward.

That Titan, different from the one that nearly killed him, wasn't burning hot. The creature's body had a much warmer temperature that was far easier to experience. The soft-peach like skin and the mild heat from Fluffy Ass was strangely comfortable to Eren.

Looking better at the Titan's face, Eren notices that his eyes were too like Levi's; the frowned shape, as the well the bored, yet, annoyed look, very similar to Mikasa's too. And precisely the same iris color.

The docility of the Titan was making Eren both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. But he's able to calm down a little.

Fluffy Ass carefully descends his hand towards the group on the wreckage. Levi jumps off before he gets near the ground.

Realizing what he did, he quickly turned to Eren and pointed at the boy with a stern expression. _"You stay there!"_ he demands, having realized how impressionable his jump had been.

 _"LEVI!"_ Mikasa and Armin scream together.

They run towards him in a rush, and he receives them with open arms. They hug tightly in relief; the kids because now they are safe as their hero was there to protect them and Levi because they were okay. Their moment took some seconds before Levi quickly notices a new but strange sent. He begins to sniff the air as he began searching for the source. It happens that the scent was coming from Armin, the poor little one had peed on his pants because of the horrible tension some minutes ago.

 _"It was when that Titan screamed out loud..."_ Mikasa says awkwardly.

Tears of shame begin to drop from Armin's eyes. He doesn't know where to hide his embarrassment. The fact it was his hero seeing that it was only making him more worried.

Levi let out a "sigh" a moment before start speaking, he looks at the blonde boy feeling bad for him. "Don't worry, you're just super scared, these things happen even with grown-ups. When I was your age, I did that occasionally when I was in the same scary situation."

Levi's words were comforting him a little, but Armin still was feeling ashamed.

Noticing this, Levi had an idea. _"Here..."_ he says as he unplugs the Wings' battery from the attachment on his back.

 _"Hold a little, please."_ He asks Mikasa and gives her the battery.

He takes off his jacket, revealing his arms full of scars. Those were the same scars also seen on his internal self, the only difference is that they are closed. The kids weren't expecting that, Mikasa slightly jaw dropped.

He ties his jacket using its arms on Armin's waist. It helped to hide the wet spot on his pants, and it had a strong yet consequently uneasy smell of fabric softener. He then gets the battery back and attaches to his back.

 _"Th-Thank... y-you..."_ Armin says very embarrassedly.

 _"You have some really scented clothes, don'tcha?"_ Mikasa questions Levi.

 _"It's fabric softener, he uses more than it should."_ Fluffy Ass says annoyed, while he extends his hand with Eren at them.

 _"Can he speak too?!"_ Armin asks scaredly surprised.

 _"Unfortunately... *sigh* yes..."_ Levi says crankily.

Levi and Tiberius help the two kids get in the Titan's hand. Mikasa was quick to get up.

 _"My mommy!"_ Eren screams while helping Armin to hop on.

 _"She will be fine! Don't worry!"_ Levi replies loudly while Fluffy Ass raises his hand.

The fluffy Titan does not stand straight up; instead, he stays leaned like a monkey.

Mikasa and Armin hug Eren tightly, they all begin to shed tears of relief.

 _"Stop getting in trouble... *sniff* you moron."_ Mikasa whimpers.

Eren giggles awkwardly. _"I don't look for trouble. Trouble looks for me."_

The hug seemed to take minutes. Afterward, they are all now relieved that they aren't left defenseless anymore as now there was a stronger force there to protect them.

 _"Your guitar, Eren."_ Armin finally can lend the guitar back to Eren.

 _"Thanks man!"_ Eren shouts happily.

Levi and Tiberius rush to aid Carla. Now that the help finally came, Carla began to relax a little, even though they were still in danger.

 _"Holy shit!"_ Levi yells when he sees her leg stuck.

 _"I know..."_ she says sadly. _"But the sacrifice was worthy. The children are fine..."_

 _"Mommy! Mommy!"_ Eren screams worried, running to the edge of the Titan's hand.

 _"Calm down 'bigger chibi,' or you will fell off,"_ Fluffy Ass says.

He gently grabs Eren by the guitar bag with the point of his claws and drags him to the middle of his palm. With his free hand, he lifts the metal wreckage that is over Carla, Levi, and Tiberius are able to pull her off.

 _"Ooh... Fuck! That's rosemary?!"_ Levi yells after scent the herb's perfume from Carla's gun. _"Lucky I didn't take off my goggles... urgh."_

 _"Are you affected while human?"_ Carla asks in a tired tone because of the fatigue.

 _"Yes, only the scent is already making my eyes itchy..."_ He pauses for a few seconds as he realizes that she knows about his powers. _"Hold on! How do you know that?!"_

 _"We don't have time for this!"_ Tiberius yells nervously.

For Carla's dismay, her right leg was damaged from the knee down. It was starting to bleed a dangerous amount as well, making Levi and Tiberius very nervous. The kids can't see precisely what's going on from up above in the Titan's hand since he doesn't let them get close to the edge.

 _"She won't make it,"_ Levi muttered, scaring Tiberius consequently. The situation wasn't much different from the ones during confrontations against Titans. But something, currently unknown to himself, was making him deathly worried.

 _"Hey 'Bigger Chibi'! Are you feeling better?"_ Fluffy Ass asks Eren, getting the kids attention.

His thunderous voice was dreadful, stronger than the previous noise from a talking Titan. But his familiar look to Levi's diminishes the voice impact, and he didn't look too intimidating with all that soft white fur. Unfortunately, his size was frightful for such little humans.

Nervously, and barely making eye contact, Eren replies, _"A little... but... I still feel uneasy in the stomach..."_

Fluffy Ass stares at them for a few seconds, and then, his iris suddenly begins to glow like a neon light. _"Hey! You don't need to look at me like that brat! It's me! Levi!"_

Now the things are way more confusing, the Titan changed his behavior almost instantaneously. 'How could that monster be Levi, if himself is down there?' They all thought.

 _"B-but... how...?"_ Armin stutters.

 _"It's something like a 'remote control,'"_ he smirks. _"He's like in 'auto-mode' hehe! He's another being that lives inside my mind, and it's my human body that can 'sum-'"_

 _"AAAAAAHH!"_ A painful scream, from the ground, interrupts them.

Recognizing the voice, Eren rushes to the edge of the hand, but Fluffy Ass quickly pulls him back. _"IT'S MY MOMMY SCREAMING! LET ME SEE!"_ He shouts pissed with the Titan.

Carla continues to moan in pain loudly making the kids, but mainly Eren, very nervous. Eren is anxious to see what is going on, but the Titan is holding him back by his shirt.

Carla's voice begins to fade away slowly, worrying her son even more. The fear was slowly consuming him as the seconds pass by. He was in a cold sweat and breathing heavily like if he had just ran a marathon.

Fluffy Ass then begins to gently descend his hand with them. Finally, when he touched the ground, they can see what's happening.

Eren is paralyzed by his vision, the panic and fright stitched down on his spine, turning him cold as ice and white like snow. His mother was being supported by Tiberius and Levi, but she had her right leg amputated. The wound was wrapped in the leather coat the old man was using.

 _"Sorry, I had to distract you."_ Fluffy Ass said simply, back to "auto-mode." He is still holding Eren for he doesn't do something impulsive.

The tension from being immobilized by the Titan makes Eren panic. He begins to screams uncontrollably, calling for his mother. Mikasa and Armin don't know who to aid.

Levi quickly holds her hand and helps Carla to walk over. Even after everything that happened, she still had the strength enough to endure the pain and position herself upon the Titan's hand. Levi helps Tiberius right after. Unfortunately, it proved difficult for the old man to get up, he's too tired already. Luckily, with Levi's help, the man was able to get on.

Fluffy Ass didn't release Eren yet, especially since the boy was crying and screaming so much. Levi quickly turns to him and slaps him in the face which immediately made the boy stop. He grabs him by the shirt and gives a rough shake.

 _"STOP IT! CONTROL YOURSELF!"_ Levi shouted angrily.

Eren immediately stopped. He was now huffing nervously with his face wet with a mixture of tears and sweat, but not he's entirely focused on Levi's face.

 _"Listen up, brat! It's that or yo' mama would die from blood loss! That's a common procedure on the Titan's battlefield! The high-frequency blades cauterize the wound. In other words, it partially closes by burning it. This gives us time to come back and correctly aid the person."_

Noticing that the kid is calming down, Levi's Titan finally releases him. Once so, Levi gently holds Eren's head with both hands. He brings his face a little closer for an eye-to-eye facing. He then says very confidently and low, _"Today it's not the day for 'ya become orphan. I won't let that happen, but you gotta trust me... Just calm down, 'kay?"_

The confident gleam in Levi's eyes reignited his heart the bravery he had left after the reality shock they all had witnessed; they discovered in the worst way as possible how weak a human is near a Titan.

Levi's words, as well his fierce confidence, begin to encourage the kids to stay strong. Their frightened faces changed now to a more confident look, though still apprehensive.

Eren nods to him, no longer crying anymore. After seeing that, Levi gives a proud smile and releases him for he can see his mother. He rushes towards Carla and gives her a big hug. She hugs him tight, both relieved that each other are okay now. She can't hold herself back and shed many tears of happiness, making Eren cry consequently, but now in quiet happiness crying.

Levi hears from the distance many angry Titan roarings. He turns to Carla as asks quickly, _"Okay, now... Where were you going, Carla? Clearly is not to the central gate."_

She replies simply with a weak voice, _"Northwest corner, Grisha will be there."_

Levi takes a second to remember what it was there since the only known exit by the ordinary folk is the main gates. That's when he realized and laughed out loudly. _"Ha! The Garrison's maintenance tunnels?! Genius!"_ He shouts happily.

He then turns to his Titan, looking somewhat annoyed. _"What are you waiting, Fleabag?!"_ he commanded out.

Fluffy Ass legs quickly transforms into rabit's ones and he creates a cat's tail. _"It's better everyone knee."_ He says and shelter them with the other hand, making a kind of protection cocoon. He then rushes jumping, going to the northeast corner.

 _"We'll be there in some minutes, I hope no one have motion sickness."_ Levi says.

The hand shakes as Fluffy Ass jumps, but everyone can stand still, the other hand also protects them from the wind.

After some seconds of silence of peace, Levi asks looking at Carla, _"What that giant asshole wanted?"_

 _"Grisha didn't tell you?"_ She says weakly.

 _"About the apocalypse?"_

 _"Not that... about the fragments of the Shigeki no Kyojin: Midgard."_

 _"Aaaaaah... no... I guess that's what he wanted to tell me at the last time we met."_ He says a bit confused, scratching his head.

 _"WAIT!"_ Eren interrupts them. He then points to Levi and asks confused, _"Do you know my daddy?!"_

A little embarrassed, Levi answers, _"Erm.. Yeah... it's been a time. He that gave to me Fluffy Ass."_

All the kids jaw dropped, they kept staring at Levi incredulously in an awkward silence.

 _"And before you ask, I met your mother that day last week."_ He says with an annoyed face.

 _"Levi..."_ Carla calls his attention. _"Don't lose this fight, no matter what... Kill that two bastards."_ She says weakly but fiercely.

 _"I will do my best."_ He says with a confident smile.

As the night was starting, Fluffy Ass' fur coat begins to slowly darkening together with the two moons rising in the sky. Once they finally reach the northeast corner of the Wall, the sun was gone and the white fur of the Titan turned into a deep black color, just like Levi's hair.

 _"We're here."_ Fluffy Ass says as he breaks.

The entrance of the tunels is at a rustic small stone gate within one of the Wall's column, with the Garrison's emblem carved on the top. It stands at the front of a small yard, with many official vehicles of the Garrison stationed around. From the small and wide opened iron gate, Grisha and, surprislying, Hanes comes rushing.

Hanes is stunned by FluffyAss' presence, he sundelly can't move a muscle. Paralyzed by his vision, he's willing to run away.  
 _"He's tamed, Hanes! Come on!"_ Grisha shouts to encourage him.

 _"T-Tamed...? But.. how...?"_ Hanes muttered scared. Even if that don't making any sense for him, he follows Grisha apprehensively.

Fluffy Ass carefully descends his hand towards Grisha and Hanes. When the hand touches the ground, Eren quickly jumps off running after his father calling him.

Grisha hugs tight his son in a relief, they both shed tears of happiness now that they're together.

But that moment is cutted off when Hanes spotted Carla at the Titan's hand. _"Oh my God! Carla!" He shouts._

 _"I'm going to hear that for the rest of the month..."_ she muttered annoyed while she puts her gun back to her purse.

Along with Grisha and Hanes, Levi helps Carla to get off the Titan's hand. It is difficult since her energy is starting to fade away for real now.

 _"Come on! The vehicle is out there!"_ Hanes shouts as he and Grisha support Carla by her arms on their shoulders. Tiberius and the kids follow them right after.

The kids stop for a moment to look behind. Levi isn't following them.

 _"Come kids!"_ Tiberius shouts to them.

Levi moves his head, saying that he won't go with them. They nod back in understanding and continue to follow the adults.

 _"Grisha!"_ Levi suddenly shouts.

Grisha stops before enters through the gate and looks over his shoulder to Levi.

 _"We have some shit to resolve after this!"_ Levi shouts with a bold look in the eyes.

Grisha smirks and thumbs up for him. They all enter the gate after that.  
The anger roarings come back again from a farther distance, but more vicious than before.

Levi laughs lowly and gives a mad smile, then takes a deep breath before speak. _"Well... shit..."_ he says annoyed, but smiling.

The group was slowly passing through the passage because of Carla. Once inside, the kids were expecting a tunnel system; but instead, they are surprised by the internal part of the collum being empty and supported by a giant pillar made of black metal. It had smaller limbs made of a material that resembles raw blue diamond connecting the column to the walls. Even from far away, they could see the rest of the Wall that was composed of the same material as the pillar creating a complex structure. Something looking like many spider webs traced together. That structure was so strange; it seemed alien.

Back to Levi, his Titan grabs him and puts on his neck. Fluffy Ass skin and flesh opens at the nape releasing a lot of steam, and at the same time, himself changes his expression to a lifeless one. Levi then raises his arms towards the opening and muscle fibers stings on his face and arms. The threads pull him to inside, right after the flesh closed many others fibers attach on Levi, putting his body into a deep slumber.

The Titan wake up straightening his body, but now with his iris glowing and with a sassy smile on the face. Levi transferred his mind to the Titan's body, now he's the Titan for real.

He cracks the joints of the neck, preparing himself for a fight. _"Okay... let's do this."_ He muttered confidently.

He entirely transforms into a domestic cat surrounded by electricity, and runs towards the south the fast as he can, jumping over buildings to move unimpaired. As he sees his targets, his expression becomes fierce and goes on the attack. Many lightning strikes crackled above where he passes.

Meanwhile, the group reaches a Garrison's service van already turned on at the other side of the Wall. Tiberius opens the door for Hanes and Grisha can help Carla sit, the kids come right after.

" _I drive it!"_ Grisha yells and sits on the driver's seat.

 _"Hanes-san! You won't come?"_ Armin asks the soldier.

 _"Sorry, buddy. But I have a job to do."_ He says apprehensively.

Tiberius then closes the van and Grisha quickly accelerate the vehicle, leaving the place through the open field, outside the road, the fast as the machine can.

The kids go to the back window, and they see the Wall getting farther and farther. They are able to witness for a short time the chaos at the entrance gate; countless people, entire families, running desperately with no destiny at the open territory. The kids' faces could not tell if they were sad, scared or confused. All they could do was merely observe the hell in a mesmerized silence.

Grisha sees them on the mirror and says calmly, _"Don't worry kids. Levi will kick all that Titans' asses."_

 _"Daddy... Did you give to Levi that Titan?"_ Eren asks confused yet apprehensive.

Grisha takes a deep breath before speak. _"Yes, son. But..." He pauses for a few seconds. "Everything will be explained... so... no questions until all this end, okay? Now you three stay sit down, please."_

The kids obey him and sit down quietly in the third row of the van's seats. At the second one is Carla laying down, discreetly panting in pain and trying not to worry the kids more than she already had.

Grisha coughs out of suddenly, quickly covering his mouth with his hand. The coughing sounded unusual to everyone, it seemed like a dry cough but also with a bit of pain together. When he stops and looks at his hand, there are droplets of vivid blood.

 _"Daddy?"_ Eren calls for him worried.

He quickly cleans the blood on his own pants. _"I'm okay, son, don't worry. I hope I didn't get a cold. Hehe..."_ He lied, trying to peace the already tense situation.

Sitting on his side, Tiberius looks at him by the corner of his eye feeling very uneasy by the man's words. At the same time, Carla puts her arm over her eyes, to hide some tears that she couldn't hold.

After the chaos was left behind, Grisha finally was able to put the van on the asphalt road. He thus drives as fast as possible towards the south perimeter city of Wall Rose, knows as _"The Green City of Trost."_

Back to the destroyed Wall, the two skinless Titans are recovered, and all the other ordinary Titans are around them waiting for orders.

Many lightning bolts randomly strike their place, hitting one or two Titans at a time. Some even dying upon being struck.

 _"It's him"_ the muscular Titan muttered angrily.

Levi jumps from a high building in bear form. He lands with so much strength that the asphalt is completely destroyed, and at the same time, the nearby Titans are launched with an electric explosion.

He transforms back to his standard form and then rises his body with a very intimidating look in the face, with an expression that clearly said: "I will kill you all."

Very pissed of he yells at them, _"Who do you think you are?! To go destroying the other ones' home just like that?!"_

 _"You have something that we want."_ The bald Titan said.

Incredulous with the answer, Levi's eyes widen, and his fur rises entire of anger. _"WHAT?! And you just simply think that you'll get whatever it is by destroying everything and killing everyone?!"_

 _"We aren't here to listen to scolds!"_ screamed the muscled Titan out of patience. _"Where are the other fragments?!"_

 _'Other fragments?'_ Levi thinks.

 _'Don't lose this fight no matter what'_ Carla's phrase echoes in his mind. He takes some seconds thinking about that.

 _"I don't know! But even if I knew I wouldn't tell you! You'll have to kill me for keep looking for them!"_ he dares the Titans.

 _"Unfortunately, we need you alive,"_ said the bald one.

The muscled Titan then snaps his fingers; all the other Titans became vicious and runs towards Levi in a furious rage to attack him.

Levi clenches his fists, charge them with high voltage energy, and when the Titans are very close, he punches the ground with everything he had. The energy explodes and launches all of them very far away, the nearest ones are profoundly stunned by the static.

He then only smirks and says, _"Good... Because I need you dead."_


	5. Chap 3: Ghost

A significant part of the citizens had evacuated the city, but many more were still struggling to pass through the gate. Thanks to Levi's offensive move, the Titans are taking too much time to show up at the north part of the city, but the citizens had slowed down as well. The uncontrolled panic of the crowd crushing each other and fainting from the heat they caused and the Garrison soldiers that decided to stay are finally being able to do their job.

 _ **Back at the south gate - 7:23 pm**_

Levi's confident and malicious grin sent fear down the skinless Titans' spines. But then, the bald Titan roars loud, ordering the lesser Titans to continue their way to the north of the city.

The Titans begin a rush towards the entrance gate, where more than the half of the citizens are trapped. As expected by Levi, the rational Titans would use his humanity against him. He could not let all those innocent people die, they had nothing to do with their matter.

Levi groans angrily before launching himself in the air using rabbit's legs and a massive electrical explosion. He lands over a building fully transformed into a cat, he then rushes using the buildings' rooftops as a shortcut to pass over the furious hoard of lesser Titans.

He is able to pass the first line quickly. He launches himself meters in front of the hoard using another electric explosion. In mid-air - almost 30 meters high - he spins to face the group now transformed into a falcon.

When he opens his wings and roars - so loud that even outside Shiganshina could hear - calling forth lightning in the sky. The hoard slows down to watch the light show above them.

With gravity pulling him down, he needs to act quickly since even as a transformed bird he could not fly. When he flaps his wings down, the lightning accompanies and strikes. As if being guided by the gesture, the lightning strikes all the first line of lesser Titans. The attack was killing most of them since the burning made by the electricity destroyed their weak spot - the nape.

The rest of the hoard keeps moving but begins to break right away. The new front line of Titans cannot stop, and they bump into the dead bodies -that are slowly vanishing into a shiny silver steam- while rest coming from behind are able to break away in time with a few exceptions. The ones standing up obverse Levi softly landing using the bird's wings like a parachute. He then steps on the ground transformed back into his standard form.

The bulky Titan, from afar, noticed that his minions stopped and - by guessing what happened - he roars out an order for them to attack Levi.

The muscly ones begin by grabbing heavy things like cars and lamp posts, while others run furiously towards the fluffy Titan.

Levi begins with an ascended punch now transformed like a bear's hand at the first and closest on his right. Then a high kick using horse legs on the next one that came on his left. Two suddenly came from behind, but he grabs them through the throat using cat paws. He then lifts them over his body with his immense strength and smashes them into the ground.

More are coming at Levi from the sides. He quickly grabs the two he smashed by their arms and swings their bodies in the air hitting the ones getting closer.

Right after, he jumps high with an electric explosion and rabbit legs. He throws the two Titans onto a bigger one that was holding a bus.

He lands on the ground with a big electric explosion, stunning the nearby Titans. He then transforms entirely into a monkey. He begins to grab smaller stunned-Titans and throw them at bigger ones or far away to the south, using his feet and hands and tail.

Getting closer to the right place, the two leading Titans see that their minions cannot defeat Levi. They could tell that he was merely playing with them. It is clear to them that their opponent has already achieved a substantial amount of experience with his Titan powers. They needed to think of another strategy and quick.

In a blink of the eye, Levi throws two Titans in mid-air spin far and he lands fully transformed into a big muscled bull; his natural horns transformed into the bull's horns. He runs towards the two rational Titans, charging energy on his head and horns and going on full gas.

The strong one clenches his left fist and put his arm in from of his head, quickly -from his exposed muscles- he creates a kind of stone-like material. When Levi sees it getting really close, he watches as the Titan begins to make a shield half his size. Once fully formed, the charging beast rammed right into Levi.

The impact made the young teen-and-beast fly backward, spinning just a little. Once Levi finally found his footing, all he could see was the world turning around him. He did not see the bulky Titan coming; launched forth by a strong hot and heavy smoke jet from two holes that opened on his back. He flies towards Levi with his shield up.

Levi - back to his standard form - is dragged by the shield across the asphalt, only stopping when they hit a tall building. Heavy building debris falls and breaks apart over them. The skinless Titan made it out first, tossing off debris everywhere around him.

In a few seconds, he creates enormous stone gauntlets on his arms. The Titan begins to furiously punch the debris in front of him in an attempt to hurt Levi.

His raging punches are stopped when he feels a burning sensation on his right ankle. Levi had now fully transformed into a giant venomous snake. The pain made he fall off of his right leg, giving Levi an opening to jump onto his neck. Levi attacks with his venomous fangs aimed right for the jugular. But he is surprised by a stone collar the Titan made around his neck, breaking his teeth.

Unfortunately for the Titan, this slowed his response towards anything else happening. Levi thus used this to his advantage. Slinking around the body of the Titan, his Titan snake form changed slightly to be like that of a constrictor snake.

The way he'd wrapped himself around him allowed him to immobilize the Titan's arms. He then begins shocking his opponent with an electric charge that cut off the Titan's control of his own limbs. Later, Levi starts to use his own arms to punch his face.

After some punches that took some of his teeth out, the stone-producing Titan creates a stone mask to protect his face. Soon, the paralyzing energy fades away, giving him the control back. In a desperate attempt to get Levi off his body, he suddenly creates stones spikes all over his body, piercing his opponent's snake body in many spots.

Levi roars loudly in pain, and he jumps off from the snake's nape area. He uses his Wings to fly over a nearby building to hide. His Titan body then vanishes in seconds into a big cloud of shiny golden steam.

He entered through a window at a nearby building, landing inside an empty office. He had to cautiously avoid the mess left around the place; people left in a hurry to escape from the immediate threat. Everywhere he looked, there was some mess; papers scattered around, chairs and tables flipped out, and even some computers were still turned on. Fortunately, the room had big windows that allowed him to be able to see his opponents outside, and have space to hide.

"What?! Are you chikin' out? Ha ha ha ha!" The muscled Titan shouts with a bit of victory on his tone, even though he can't still move his right leg properly. All the other wounds Levi did on him are being already closed by his self-healing ability.

 _"'Chikin' out'? Who says that?" Levi questioned himself._

 _"Kids... I guess..." Fluffy Ass said confused as well._

 _"Shit. That fucker probably ripped off his own arm to get rid the cut I made it are definitely an undiscovered type of Titan._

He carefully looks through the window and begins to growl literally like an angry wolf. All his teeth - shaped similar to his Titan's - being shown off in a vicious snarl. His titan-like eyes widened and irises glowing with anger, but he remains quiet and hidden. Just in case their opponent had excellent hearing.

 _"I guess they are like us," his Titan wondered._

 _"It looks like for sure... Human reasoning, shape-shifting, element bending..."_

Levi takes another look. He sees that the bulky Titan has now made many stone plates around his body, creating a kind of stone armor. Levi then begins to formulate another strategy.

 _"I can't get close to the beefy one...He'll kick the shit out of me if I don't be careful. It seems he can make any sort of armor... I bet he can make weapons too."_

 _"Armored Titan..."_

 _"The bald one... He can grow up to a colossal size and fire bend... I didn't see the shape-shifting yet... damn it..."_

 _"Colossus Titan!"_

 _"This is not the time to be making up nicknames, Fleabag!"_

He looks again to the window and is badly surprised, nearly freaking him out. "Where's Colossus?!" he screams internally in a cold sweat.

Meanwhile, Armored Titan orders to some lesser Titans to advance to the north gate; panicking Levi even more.

Suddenly, the room became dark, and the temperature begins rising quickly. In a quick fade in, as like leaving a camouflage, Colossus Titan appears with the eyes precisely in front the windows he's hidden behind.

The fear had fallen over Levi's body, like cold water in the shower, he literally didn't see him coming. He takes a second to realized what happened.

"Invisibility...? Nice," he said befuddled, with a bit of nervousness on his tone.

 _ **Survey Corps Headquarters (early)- 06:26 pm**_

Erwin and his soldiers met with the General outside the main building of the Headquarters. He called them after seeing the lightning that fell on the training camp. Erwin didn't want to, but he had to report the last actions Levi committed.

"I can't believe he's gone... again!" the general screams pissed at Erwin. "Can't you put that shitty teenager on his place?!"

The other soldiers are gathering nearby to discover what's going on. Many of them had only seen that kind of colossal lightning one time or another on the Outside.

Erwin takes a slow deep breath before speak to control his voice, for he doesn't want to shout everything he's thinking. His patience is at its very limit. "Sir..." he says slowly. "He's not an ordinary teenager, you know that."

"Yeah, a teenager that can fucking control machines!" Tatsuo blurted angrily.

All the other soldiers begin to murmur questions quietly between each other. They can't believe what their colleague just stated. It sounded like he'd described a character of a sci-fi movie.

Erwin keeps staring at the general. His gaze is so severe that it seems that he may scold his commander instead. The general is shaken by Erwin's look and hears the commotion around him. His hands begin to tremble and sweat of nervousness.

Erwin then gets a little closer for so he can whisper to him. "Sir... We can't hide the truth about Levi's true nature anymore. He's getting out of our control."

Everyone stopped talking to try to listen to what Erwin said. The soldiers are getting nervous, wondering what their superiors are hiding from them.

"I knew it had some dirty secret about that bastard!" someone shouted from behind the crowd. With a snobbish posture and the ego twice the size of the walls, the - fake - blond short haired Corporal demands the others open the path for so he can pass.

The other eight Corporals are gathering nearby Erwin and the General, leaving their leader even more apprehensive.

"It wasn't just his skills with 3D maneuver gear that called you down there, was it, Erwin?!" the same Corporal from before yelled.

Erwin stares at him severely, heavy breathing of anger. He knows how much that man hates Levi. He then turns his eyes to the General, waiting for his position; he should reveal the secret or not?

All ten Corporals and the other members are with their eyes on their Leader, waiting for his answer in an awkward silence. The pressure of the looks around is making his head fuzzy. Looking down, he then whispers to Erwin, "Do what you want..."

He didn't like how his own superior did not have the guts to resist such pressure like that, but he then gives a straight stare to the Corporal. He says in an aggravated tone, "No, Johansen. It wasn't." He let out a long sigh before continuing. "He's..." -a pause- "He's the Lightning Ghost Titan."

Many people gasped at the same time, even being so absurd what Erwin just said, he used such a harsh voice that most of the soldiers around believed, but unwavering questions and theories filled the air loudly.  
 _"A Titan disguised as a human?"_  
 _"There're Titans living among humans?"_  
 _"It exists Titans on our side?"_  
 _"Wasn't Levi from the Underground?"_  
 _"That's impossible!"_

Johansen stepped back, eyes widened in surprise and fright. "Wha...What the fuck Erwin?"

"I'm serious," Erwin says, angrily staring at Johansen.

"Impossible! I've seen him and the Titan at the same time once!" Hanji screamed, shutting up the questioning commotion. She walks towards the Corporals. "How could it be, Erwin? He and the Lightning Ghost helped a few other colleges and me from an ambush."

Erwin stares at Hanji for a moment, thinking in a way to phrase his words for a quick and clear explanation so everyone would understand, but the truth was so absurd that nothing he could think made a single drop of sense.

"I remember, Hanji..." he says calmly as not to trigger another commotion. "But he explained to me that he can... Ahm..." -a pause, looking for a good wording- "... 'summon' the Titan's body that he can remotely control. But I've seen by myself he transforming into the Titan."

Erwin was expecting a wave of questions over him, but instead, everyone else is quiet, giving him space to explain himself. "He explained that he's a human-titan hybrid."

Not a single word came from the soldiers, everyone was trying to process the information that Erwin threw at them in a cold water bucket. They can only exchange scared and frightened looks between them. No one didn't know what to say, what to think, or even what to do next.

Suddenly, Erwin's cell phone makes a loud double warning beep of incoming messages. The unexpected noise made some gasps and scared yells from the mesmerized crowd.

When he checked out what it was, he's surprised to see that it was from Levi. He let out a debauch "hmpf" before talking. "Speak of the devil..."

Levi had sent him a short video through the messaging app Survey Corps use for communication with a text right after: "Come quick!"

The General get closer to Erwin to try to understand his question mark face. "What did he say?" He questions confused as well.

Erwin plays the video and high up the volume so everyone could hear.

Levi is running over the Wall top -under the large solar panels- heading south, a horse in gallop can be heard near the camera; that's shaking as if he was actually riding a horse. The camera is focused on the recently destroyed gate and Colossus Titan in his sixteen-meters size.

He starts speaking loud and out of breath.  
"I KNEW ERWIN! I KNEW IT!" - pause to breath- "The south gate of Shiganshina was destroyed by that giant fucker! The center is totally covered in flames!" -another breath pause- "The Garrison Soldiers won't be able to handle all that Titans! The citizens need the Survey Cor-!" Levi is interrupted by a loud thunderous voice coming from the south, the words are undistinguished in the video, and he ends the recording right after.

Everyone remains quiet.

"How he's already in Shiganshina? He left less than twenty minutes ago..." Hanji questions looking to her colleges, thus breaking the silence.

They only shrug in response.

"Sir?" Erwin asks the General worriedly.

He takes some seconds to respond, he kept looking away like searching for a line of thought. He then raises his head and looks at Erwin. "Call our train driver."

 _ **Shiganshina City - 7:33PM**_

The Survey Corps train stops just a little before the west station, precisely at the same moment Levi called out the lightning rain on his falcon form.

The train's lights blinked and the engine nearly turned off as electrical energy discharged from the sky

"Holy shit! What was that?!" A soldier screamed.

"Levi..." Erwin muttered.

The doors on the train open and ramps descend from under the doors to the ground. Immediately, soldiers begin to leave the cars. Further down the line were many larger railcars that could fit larger objects such as horses and large amount of supplies.

A young soldier, of red short hair and energetic look in their eyes, comes running from the engine to the general. She first salutes him before speaking. "Sir! The train will go back and wait for the citizens outside the city! My Captain ordered me to go with you find the Garisson's Captain responsible for this city!"

Suddenly, the ground shakes. It was soon followed by the sound of the destruction similar to a thunderclap.

"Okay." The General said quickly and apprehensive. "Who is it?"

"His name is Hanes, Sir."

"Thanks, Viki." He looks to everyone else and orders, "Let's go to the entrance gate!"

All Survey Corps members turn on their Wings with Viki turning on her 3D maneuver gear; that Garrison Troops like to call by "Claws." But Erwin suddenly screams, "WAIT! NO! I don't think Levi noticed we're here! His electric powers can shut down our equipment in mid-air!"

"What?!" A female Corporal yelled nervously. "How're we going to help everyone then?!"

"Levi just needs to know we're here, and then it will be safe for us to use the Wings."

"We don't have time to discuss. Let's go running with our damn feet for now!" The General ordered angrily.

Most of them didn't like the idea, but they begin a run anyway towards the North Gate.

After some running, Erwin calls Levi through the communicator, "Levi? Levi! We are here!"

It's a small wireless phone with a microphone that they use on their right ear. It also had a short-range antenna inside the battery case on located on its back. A person only needs to press a specific button on the swords to talk. There was one button to open a channel - on the right cable - and another to configure through the cell phone call list to communicate with the squad - at the left wire.

Back to Levi in the south area; he was hiding quietly behind the thin wall that separates him and Colossus Titan -now grown twenty-two meters high.

Then, Erwin's voice loudly interrupted the silence between them. Levi froze in shock when he heard the familiar voice, and by how booming it sounded.

Reacting to the sound, the Colossus steps back with clenched fists, that suddenly catches on fire. It was such a large flame that it illuminated the room he's hidden entirely with its bright orange light.

Levi doesn't even think twice, he rushes the faster as he can to the other side of the room.

Colossus charges with all his strength into his fire fist and punches the building precisely on the floor Levi is. Due to the raging flames, as well as the destruction by the impact, the structure begins to fall apart. The pieces of the floor start to break quickly, and to leave the falling building, Levi jumps from debris to debris. Each time, charging his jumps with electricity while avoiding the furniture rolling down.

On the last second, he's able to jump off a window falling down onto him. He passes through the broken glass, shooting himself high in the air with a charged gas release from his wings. He flies ten meters higher other Colossus while also avoiding the falling debris on his side.

In seeing this, the Titan immediately goes and stretches his arm like an elastic and with the hand - still covered on flames- wide open. He goes towards Levi to catch him.

But he's faster. He turns off his wings so the high-frequency blades wouldn't kill him for real. He quickly cuts his jugular, swiftly killing himself, and triggers his Titan transformation. During so, a tremendous burst of lightning falls over him. Imbued with electrical energy, from his body begins to grow all kind of fibers; musculature, bones, nerves, etc., all the things that made up a living being.

Except, it was not all that big. Levi had changed into a smaller Titan body - of five meters high- that had formed in a matter of seconds around him, transforming him again into a Titan.

In his new form, he quickly turns to face Colossus and using the static of his fur. He then discharges a massive bolt of electricity over the incoming fire hand.

Colossus didn't have time to stop.

The electric energy combined with the Titan fire bursting from Colossus' hand. The combined attacks left a terrible scent of burned meat in the air.

Colossus roars in pain extremely loud and shrinks back to fifteen meters.

The roar echoes through all of Shiganshina. All the Survey Corps soldiers, as well as the citizens, stopped instantly with fright. They all then began screaming.

"That wasn't Levi, right?" Hanji asks Erwin very worried.

"I hope not..." He answered apprehensively and worried as well.

Back at the fight, Levi launches himself using a large bolt onto the Wall, now fully transformed into a cat he holds himself on the wall using his claws. He then jumps to the ground using the tall buildings as a break. Once on the ground, he transformed into a horse and galloped towards the direction of the north gate.

From the top of the pillar, right next to the destroyed Wall segment, two kids - boys around Eren and Mikasa's age - wearing a black coat with hood and a white mask with only the eyes shape are watching the chaos.

"Is he gone again?!" The smaller yelled, his voice distorted because of the mask. He then slaps the other one in the head.

"Hey!? Why did do that?!" He yells out confused in a distorted voice.

"You're the one who stretches! Just knock him down!"

"B-but we can't kill him!" He says worriedly.

"No one said we need him entirely! Only the nape must be intact!" He shouts, breathing out dark steam from under the mask.

The tall kid stops for a few seconds, like thinking in what the other said meant. "Aaah! Got it." He looks to where Colossus is and shouts, "Judas! Take us out of here!"

Colossus Titan looks straight ahead at them. While walking in their direction, he grows to thirteen meters in size, while Armored follows him. The titan then raises his left hand - since the right is still recovering - and from his palm, two strings of flesh stretch out - like tentacles- on their direction. The tissue grabs the taller boy onto his right shoulder, while the Armored Titan put the other human on his right shoulder.

"Okay, let's capture Thör! To the north, Brutus!" The smaller yelled with a confident tone, pointing to the north gate.

Back to Levi, he continues to push on forward as he follows the scent of his colleagues coming from the north.

"Levi! Levi answer me! We are reaching the north gate!" Erwin yells on the communicator.

Erwin's voice echoed within the torso of Levi's Titan body. Despite how loud it spoke, Levi's human body remained dormant. Although, even in a deep slumber state, his mind still could hear the man, making him run even faster. While doing so, he then regains his standard size and moves his real body to the nape of the neck on the Titan.

Reaching the north area, he returns to his standard form. Unfortunately the moment he stood straight up, he became visible to the citizens at the gate; since there lacked tall enough buildings to cover him. Even him being partially camouflaged with his black fur coat in the night time darkness, the light from the lamp posts and the fire from the center exposed him. Worst, the lights only showed so much of him. Combining with his shining irises glowing against the light it created an image worthy of a horror movie.

"TITAN!" Many citizens screamed at once.

*missing artwork*

The chaos restarted; the people began a desperate run from Levi and the Garrison's soldiers frozen dead in his presence. Just as they arrived, all the Corps' members were able to see him as well.

"It's him!" Erwin screamed.

Witnessing all the chaos, Levi acts impulsively as his fear of the people, but mainly little ones, getting hurt by this nonsense.

"STOOOOP!" He shouts the loud as he can, his voice trembling like a thunderclap.

Everyone freezes all at once, paralyzed by the fact of a speaking Titan.

"I'm not gonna hurt 'ya!" He shouts angrily. "I'm with the Survey Corps!"

Everyone stayed quiet and paralyzed in fear, even the Garrison soldiers. Levi's Titan voice simply stunned everyone.

Hanes snaps out after recognized that it was the Titan he saw early with Levi. With the megaphone he was using to guide the citizens, he shouts, "He's telling the truth! There's no need to panic!"

The citizens are unable to believe; when did Titans suddenly become their allies, many thought in both ridicule and fear. Then, from behind some buildings, the Survey Corps fly onto the scene. Even being the smallest of all military organizations - with currently fifty-seven members after their last mission - they were the only people inside the Walls that knew how to fight Titans.

Their presence was like the appearance of angels coming in to save everyone. The crowd cheers for them in joyous yells and shouts.

Levi glares at the civilians with disdain. These people, he thought, were probably the same ones that would verbally attack his regiment on the social media, and in some isolated cases even physically.

"You bunch of hypocrites!" He yells angry.

A sudden awkward silence immediately came over the crowd.

"Ha... Now we're useful, right?!" He finishes.

"LEVI!" Erwin screams while flying to a building nearby him and right before he began to blurt something else.

Some other members accompanied him, while the rest went with the General to share their plains with the - remaining - Garisson's Squad responsible for Shiganshina.

Levi's iris stop glowing and his expression tempered. Then heavy steam comes out from the nape of his neck. His real body detaches from the muscle fibers of the neck, leaving the control for his inner Titan.

Then, Fluffy Ass raises his left hand to the top of the building where Erwin and the others are.

They can see Levi coming running descending the Titan's arm, and later he jumps into the rooftop next to them.

He was so focused on what was happening and thinking on what to say that he was caught off guard by a surprise punch from Erwin, right to his face. The other soldiers stayed immobile, staring with eyes wide open as they watched the rebel teenager fall to the ground.

Erwin let out a relieved sigh and then says with an angry smile on the face while shrugs, "I feel so much better now..."

Fluffy Ass slowly applauses and laughs in debauch. "Ha...Ha. You deserved that...Asshole!"

"Yeah... Maybe," Levi says weak while splitting the blood from the wound.

"Thanks to your disobedience I had to tell everyone about your secret!" Erwin says in an aggravated tone.

When Levi got back up, he begins to shake. Not like a human but like how a dog acts when shaking out the dust from its fur. The action made everyone confused and even scared - an ordinary human can't shake like that. They were also more shocked when they saw the wound caused by Erwin was already healed.

"Oh, good. I will save spit then," Levi commented aloud.

Erwin could not handle all the naughtiness and irresponsibility from the teenager. Mostly because Levi wasn't like that when they first met, but he knew this wasn't the time to discuss that: again.

Levi makes a hand signal to Fluffy Ass, for him to climb the nearby tall building. The Titan ascends the building like it were an ordinary tree. Once high enough, he begins to watch for the Titan hoard. He's able to spot Colossus - still thirteen meters high- releasing flames onto the central square so the other Titans can pass.

"What's the situation?!" Erwin requests.

"They are in the center now. We don't have much time left," Levi says quickly and slightly apprehensive. "I don't think you will believe me, but there are more two like me."

That statement shocked the other soldiers.

"What?! More hybrids?!" Hanji shouts, almost freaking out.

Levi takes a deep breath. "I wasn't so surprised to discover. Somehow I knew I wasn't the only one. But..." - a pause - "I guess they are just kids."

"How do you know that?" Erwin questioned apprehensively.

"The way they act, it reminds me of children." He says concernedly.

"Ha! We can handle them!" A soldier said confidently.

Levi's worried expression immediately turns of disgust. "Ha! Yeah, sure," he says ironically.

"One of them can create any kind of stone armor, and I bet he can make weapons too. He can also bend...hot smoke, I guess." He said, saying the last part with uncertainty.

The teenager continued, "The other one can grow to up sixteen-meters high, stretches his muscles like elastic, and bend fire. Oh, he can turn invisible too. These are kids with big guns in their hands. Good luck with that!"

The soldiers could not believe this information. Unfortunately, Levi was not one to lie; often. 'Are hybrids some kind of super Titan? How can humanity fight with such a thing like that? We know nothing about Titans then?' They all thought; the reasons for why Erwin and the General had been hiding Levi's true nature were getting into the light.

"They have a hoard of Titans that they command" he continues. "I could kill some, but more are coming from the Outside. I'll take care of the two hybrids. You guys protect the citizens from the ordinary ones for help on the evacuation. What do you think?"

"Sounds perfect," Erwin says, he then looks to the others, and they all nods in agreement.

"WAIT! How do we will know who's the hybrid?" Mike asks in a hurry.

A loud roar shakes the air like an earthquake. Colossus is spotted emerging from the smoke curtain.

Fluffy Ass jumps off the building and lands safely by the humans. The Titan then kneels by the building, and his nape opens releasing a lot of steam.

"They're skinless," Levi replies to Mike without glancing at him. He then jumps on his Titan's shoulder and enters through the nape again.

The General calls everyone through the communicator. "Everything is set up with the Garrison's Squad. Everyone gather at the end of the crowd!"

Erwin and the soldiers among him fly back to the crowd's place while Levi positions himself on the Main Avenue -far from the citizens- waiting for the hoard get in sight.

"Sir," Erwin replies. "Levi will take care of the two new hybrids that appeared. He will leave the ordinary Titans to us."

"Roger that. A garrison squad is guiding the citizens to the cars. Our train is big enough to take on many more. But for the Garrison and us to leave we'll have to wait for its return from Trost."

"But that's around an hour, Sir!" A male Corporal retorts nervously.

"I know, but we'll have to endure!"

The last Garrison's soldiers that stayed - around thirty-two of eighty-seven - began to guide the citizens to the train, leading them to the farthest cars first; giving priority to the youngsters and movement impaired ones to pass in front of the rest. They guide them with shouts and try to control with phrases like 'No need to rush! Survey Corps will take care of the Titans!'

All Corp's members are now gathered hanging on buildings on Main Avenue. The noises from the Titans are starting to be audible for them, making them sweat cold, they don't know how much big is this hoard.

"Hey! Ca-bzzz bzzz- hear me?! -Bzzzzzz" Levi tries to speak with the others through the communicator.

"Not that much!" Tatsuo replies. "There's too much interference."

"Bzzz bzzz- cking static -bzz- fur! I'll try -bzzz bzzzzz bzz- less eletrici -bzzz- help you. But -bzz bzzzz- not have choice som -bzzz- stay alert!"

"Roger that!" Erwin yells apprehensive.

A loud roar echoed through the smoke curtain covering the rest of Main Avenue. The stomps begin to tremble the ground like an earthquake. And Levi knows who it was: The Armored Titan.

"Bzzz- irst hybrid! Th-bzzz-mored!" Levi yells but barely audible.

He roars in response and knowing that his comrades were safe. He let electricity to fill the sky. Everyone sees their Wings' energy light blinking because of his static field, the citizens -scared already from the bolts of lightning- notice the train's lights blinking as well.

The fact that their biggest weapon is also their biggest weakness made all the Corps' members more nervous than they already were. They will have to fly with twice the caution since Levi will need to use his electric skills sometimes.

The time between the quakes begin to diminish, like it started to run faster. Then, Brutus emerges from the curtain quickly - with armor much heavier and resembling that a traditional knight armor in shape - he goes full charge in Levi's direction.

The moment the Survey Corps members caught sight of the armored Titan they completely froze with shock. So paralyzed fear they were unable to process what they are witnessing. But they woke up quickly, after spotting the lesser Titans coming from behind the armored one in a furious rush. It was the biggest hoard they ever met, it was up to four - maybe even five - titans per soldier.

"No -bzzz-ve N-bzzz- move!" Levi shouts through the communicator.

"Do as he says! Don't move!" The General shouted quickly, reinforcing Levi's instructions.

With death coming upon them in the form of furious monsters under the command of - presumably - brats, they didn't have a choice but to listen to Levi who appeared to know what he's doing.

The hoard passed in front of Armored. The smaller of them jumping over the buildings; meanwhile, while the bigger ones were stomping and destroying everything on the streets.

Every roar and scream was like someone cutting the soldiers' skin with a cold knife which made them panic and frightened.

When the hoard finally close enough, Levi opens his arms transforming them into large bat wings that were charged with electric energy. Quickly he jumps and flaps his wings with all his strength, sending a massive wave of electrical power over the hoard. The front-most Titans are immediately paralyzed, and due to their momentum, they fall forward and down onto the avenue towards the Survey Corps. The Titans coming behind begin a desperate break, but Armored didn't stop.

"Go! Go! -bzzz bzz-o! Go!"

The soldiers then immediately jump off the buildings and began an offensive move towards the stunned Titans. The paralyzed bodies were perfect for everyone to attack their weak spot: the nape.

Their coordination was perfect with swift air moves looked like birds dancing in the air. They were spinning, launching themselves in the air and then slashing the Titan's thick skin on their napes, immediately killing them.

Armored's right arm armor transforms into a giant sword, going precisely for Levi's chest.

But he evades turning his body to his right, immediately he transforms his right hand into a bear arm. With the large claws pointing to the only opening on his face. He stabs both of the Titan's eyes, crushing the thin armor around them and penetrating right on his skull.

Armored roars loud in pain, he steps back almost losing his equilibrium.

"Amateur..." Levi whispers.

Levi does a backflip and turns into a muscled bull, and with one hit charged with electrical energy he throws Armored far from the Corps, consequently destroying many buildings on his fall.

Thanks to the stun on the initial lesser Titans, the Corps was able to kill the ones coming with ease because of their break.

First slashing the tendons of their legs, then cutting the nape off is the current strategy. But more Titans were coming for the savagery.

"STOP!" Levi shouts with a mix of roaring on the tone.

All the soldiers land right after on the nearest ground; rooftops, lamp posts, asphalt, etc.

Levi once again makes the same move to stun the more incoming Titans and yet the Corps use of that to kill them.

Suddenly a massive ball of fire hits the raised north gate, although all the citizens are already outside and there's not much left to enter on the train. But the boom scared everyone, the Garrison soldiers began to hurry up the last ones for so the train be able to leave that now war zone.

Inside the city, Colossus once again turned sixty meters high and it's now all covered on flames.

The soldiers didn't know what to think that moment except "we're all going to die."

From the other side of the gate, they can hear the train's loud horn announcing their departure.

The citizens were now safe. Now all that was left was the military to face the Titans.

The Garrison soldiers didn't dare to come back to the city. Knowing well their lack of training in fighting Titans, Hanes had ordered them to wait for the Corps on the outside. But then, this situation made him remember Levi's words.

He downed his head and said low, "so... that shit teenager was right." He let out a very ashamed laugh. Omar that was on his side and didn't say a thing, but it was visible on his deception face that he agreed.

Colossus began to charge a fire attack inside his mouth, looking straight at the area the Corps members stand. Unfortunately, his slow charging time gave them time to spread around.

Then he spits a substantial flamethrower-like breath in their direction. The flames were so massive that the humans didn't have anywhere to run, it was going to get everyone.

Thus, they all immediately stop, with many closing their eyes, accepting their death.

"SCREEEEEECH!"

A loud monster-like bird cry sounds out.

Levi had transformed into a falcon and jumped in front of the fire cone, shielding everyone with his body. He ejects [1]himself from the Titan's nape, falling on a nearby rooftop.

The Titan body is completely burned down by Colossus' fire. When the fire ends the rests of the carbonized body vanishes into golden steam, and the scent of burned meat fills the air, making some soldiers nauseous.

Colossus stays quietly scared, not believing in what he just witnessed. Armored - still immobile where he'd fallen - could only hear what happened, since Levi had destroyed the front area of his brain he wasn't able to adequately control his body. He needs to wait until the brain regenerate for he can move and like he's speeding up the healing a lot of steam is coming out from his head.

Meanwhile, all the humans fly the fastest they can to where Levi had fallen, out of the sight of Colossus.

Erwin is the first one to arrive, and he's stunned by the scene. Levi is in the same position from earlier, but he's crying. Such desperate tears that were making everyone else who arrives scared.

Erwin snaps out of the trance and goes help Levi get up, Hanji goes right after him.

He can't stop crying; he sobs and whimpers frantically.

Erwin and Hanji grab him by the hands and pull him up, but his legs are weak because of his mental state.

 _His internal self is once again squirming in pain, the large wound on his back bleeding more than earlier; although this time, he screams and cries desperately._

 _Fluffy Ass tries to cover his ears to block that sharp cry, but he was unable to and began to shed tears of desperation and sadness._

Levi stutters some barely understandable words, holding on Erwin's and Hanji's arms for not fall off.

"What?" Hanji asks confused.

Levi tries to repeat, and between many sobs and sniffs, they could understand: "I can't lose you guys."

Meanwhile, the two rational Titans, as well as the lesser ones, aren't moving. The two boys - apparently - who own the two leading Titans are rushing towards the place where the Corps' members are reunited. The taller Titan is using fire blasts under his feet to jump far away, and the other is using strong hot smoke jets from his hands to push himself forward.

Some of the Corps members - mostly the ones that aren't fond of Levi - noticed the pause made by their opponents.

Levi regains some breath and can put his voice under control, but he still stutters and sobs too much. "I-I-I c-can't *sniff* ha-handle-" a pause for breath "-lose *sob sob* more... *sniff* fri-friends" and he moans in pain.

"Friends...?" Hanji repeats. "We're friends after all then..." she smirks.

Levi -barely opening his eyes because of the tears- nods confirming her statement.

The reason for why Levi was pushing everyone away was getting clear to Erwin. 'He probably had lost many friends while living in the Underground and now he can't handle the pain of losing more loved ones.' He concludes with himself.

Hanji suddenly begins hugging Levi, and he responds by hugging her back tightly, relieved that his friends were okay. "I-I'm... I'm so *sob sob* so sorry for earlier *sniff*". He whimpers, hiding his face on her shoulder.

She strokes his head trying to calm him down. "It's okay..." she whispers in his ear.

Jenna gets close and strokes his shoulder, helping Hanji calm him down.

"I don't want to ruin the moment," a dark-skinned female Corporal says. "But something is bloody wrong with them!" She then points to Colossus, who is quiet on his place, still on fire.

Some soldiers go to the edge of the rooftop and look down to the street. They see that the lesser Titans are standing still, like waiting for something.

Once Levi finally regains his serious composure, he's then able to feel the two energy sources from the boys coming closer and very fast. Quickly, he gets out of Hanji's arms - cleaning his last tears with his arm- and go to the rooftop's edge.

Right after it, Erwin notices that he's doing the same as when they found him on the hill; a scared, apprehensive look in the face, he's quiet, heavy breathing with eyes fixed in one point on the horizon.

He once again activates his powers, changing his eyes to like his Titan's. Also, he morphs his ears into cat ears - including changing their position to be over his head. Everyone is surprised by that. Some soldiers even exchange looks that expressed silently "what the hell?"

He moves his ears, occasionally moving his head, like a radar searching for a signal searching for the two boys' energies.

No one knows what to think about what they're seeing. Some wanted to ask - mainly Hanji - but they stayed quiet and observed.

Then, his ears return to normal, and he starts to walk back slowly, but still with the powers turned on.

'Something is coming' Erwin thinks.

Levi signals with his hands for everyone to step back. Immediately after, the sounds of fiery explosions and smoke jet began to hurtle towards the soldiers.

Louder the sounds were getting, each time the soldiers becoming more anxious and worried. Without any eyes on whatever it was that made those sounds, they were like sitting ducks.

But Levi could. His Wings' energy started to blink once again, the blue neon of the machines as well their high-frequency blades were in a frenetic on and off.

Levi was standing still - with the back to his comrades - and the noises were getting closer and closer. Electric bolts began clicking around Levi, and his Wings finally shut down.

BOOM!

Two explosions are heard from behind and below them. Everyone quickly turns back in fright, but the two boys were already on the rooftop, standing taller than most everyone there. The taller already had a fireball ready on his hands, and the other had formed a stone spike ball and chain replacing his right hand, both aiming to Levi.

Levi turns to them swiftly, with the palm of his hands aimed out them. Two bolts of lightning shoot towards the boys having fired them precisely the same moment he turned. The two boys fall, both having been partially stunned, and land near Levi. The spike ball almost fell over the soldiers, but they could quickly avoid by jumping to the side.

While still on the ground, the boy swings the spike ball in Levi's direction, but he is quick in avoiding it by doing a backflip jump. Seeing things in slow motion for a moment, Levi can see the taller kid -laying down- going to slap his hand on the ground. Once Levi's hands touch the ground, the taller boy hits his hand on the field too, causing it all -in front of him- to catch fire in a fraction of second. Using this tiny breach Levi can quickly launch himself in the air with an energy explosion, with the flames almost getting his hands.

The other swings the spike ball back, aiming to here Levi is about to land his feet. Quickly, Levi entirely transforms into a small black snake in mid-air - everything he was wearing disappeared in white light and oddly his ponytail was still there - and with a small bolt, he keeps himself in the air for a second more and the spike ball pass right behind him.

He falls on the ground and crawls quickly into the fire field in the direction of the fire bender boy, who was getting up. Getting closer to him, he shapeshifts into a black mountain ram - still keeping his ponytail and now his earrings came back - and knock back the boy using his sturdy horns. He flies towards the Corp's group who quickly move so the flying body can pass through. He then lands right behind them.

The other boy morphs the spike ball and the chain into a sizeable one-handed hammer and goes full charged towards Levi, roaring loud to show power. He jumps to hammer - the quiet on his place- ram Levi.

Unexpectedly, Levi shapeshifts into a tall black horse and the boy -in mid-air- is heavily kicked in the stomach, thus launched far out the rooftop.

Johansen sudden want to use the breach of the fire boy on the ground - recovering from the hammered he just received. Even with the high-frequency blades turned off they're still sharp enough to hurt a Titan severely. He set them ready to wound the boy's legs.

Levi notices his offensive will and returns to normal quickly, everything he was wearing returns together in the same white glow.

Johansen advances in the boy's direction with his swords out to slash his legs. But the boy, not intimidated by a human, quickly charges a fire shot on his hand.

Knowing Johansen won't be able to stop his sprint and avoid the incoming fire attack, Levi launches himself in his direction with an energy explosion under his feet.

The boy releases a cone of fire, and in one second, Levi moves Johansen away by pushing with the shoulder. Immediately he became the target of the flamethrower attack.

The left side of his face and torso are burned by the attack. He let out a loud yell of pain, deafening everyone around, the boy tremble on his feet to get up quickly feeling the incoming counterattack.

Johansen felt on the ground without a single burn, but Levi got a severe burn on the left part of his face, shoulder, and torso - his earrings, as well his hairclip and partially his goggles, melted with the high temperature.

Furious bolts of lightning began to crackle loudly in the sky as Levi screeches in pain while taking out the fire of his body. The instant the flames are out he runs toward the fire boy -already standing up- his arms completely turned into bear's arms, partially his head and torso with third-degree burns -his hair still with some flames. He roars loud like a mad wild beast, split flying off from his mouth full of sharp teeth, and he jumps with his claws imbued in electric energy read to carve them into the boy's body.

That horrendous image gave the boy goosebumps, and he didn't know how to react.

Levi cross-slash with his giant claws on the boy's chest and with concentrated energy electrocuted him in a fraction of second before exploding. Immediately, Colossus roars out loud, and his flames fade off and kneel down, almost as if he'd felt the boy's pain.

The boy flies off the rooftop, blood spilling all over. But even feeling his entire body hurting, he's able to morph his left arm into a long tentacle of flesh and use it to hold in a pipe on the side of the building.

The boy roars loud calling the lesser Titans - something like a loud roar of a lion cub - the ones closer runs towards the building he's hanging. They all extend their hands side by side, waiting to get the boy in mid-air. He releases the pipe and falls off right into the hands of a lesser Titan. He makes some growling noises and the Titans run away far from the building; towards the north gate. Directly after, Colossus stands up again and reignite his flames.

Levi let out a 'tsk' of annoyance after seeing that. He takes off the melted goggles, dragging part of his skin together and making he growl in pain for a second. Instants after it, his wounds were healed entirely - ceasing the steam. Aside from his destroyed clothes, he was looking exactly like before the burn, like if nothing happened, even his hair grew up precisely to the same length as before.

A loud roar comes from the street, and the ground begins to shake right after. Levi recognizes the noise; Armored was coming with full gas on their direction, right to hit the building.

All the Corps members were able to spot the stone Armored Titan coming, making them freak out in a silent panic because of their equipment shut down by Levi's powers.

"JUMP!" Levi shouts to his comrades and turns off his power. He then rushes towards the nearby building on the other side of the street.

All of them decided to listen, and they run to jump with him, their equipment turning on in the middle of the rush for their relief. They all quickly grab their swords while Armored passes through the lower part of the building. Immediately the structure began to fall apart, with the soldiers still on the rooftop. Once they got on the edge, they all jump together the farthest possible. When they reach the limit of their jump, they shoot their hooks with full force towards the building in front of them.

Although, Armored continued running straight like a train at full speed and went destroying every building in front of him; he obliterates at least five blocks.

The moment Levi jumped he sees that his Wings were heavily damaged; because of the way he felt after eject himself from his Titan body the battery and the gas jet were destroyed.

 _"Well...shit..." Fluffy Ass says annoyed._

His Wings don't turn on, and he was already in the middle of his jump. All his comrades were starting to rewind their cables and fly towards the building, but he began to free fall.

Everyone could see him starting to fall as they pass near him.

All his friends scream his name, as they fly to the building they witness him falling through the dense dust cloud created by the falling buildings. When they landed on the wall of the building, Levi already had disappeared into the dust cloud.

For a second they were terrified thinking he wasn't able to save himself because he would need his Titan powers, but if he used them, then they won't be able to protect themselves. The only conclusion was that he died.  
But that second of sorrow is broken when from the dust cloud a bird screech - more precisely a prey bird's cry - is heard in the middle of the loud noises of the falling debris. Everyone focused on where - supposedly - the sound came from; the same area Levi had fallen.

Suddenly and very fast, a black falcon -with some long hair made of thin feathers- comes out from the dust cloud and flies higher than the place where they are hanging.

The falcon spins in the air and flies towards the direction of the soldiers and stop nearby Levi's friends.

"Come on! With me!" The falcon yells with a thin voice and flies on the opposite direction of Armored Titan.

The soldiers take a second to process the information of a talking falcon, but then they quickly realize that it was Levi. His friends became flooded with a mix of emotions like fear, happiness, and confusion all at the same time. Although, there remained a big question: 'can he fly?'

"Follow the bird! It's Levi!" ordered the General to everyone.

Using their Wings, everyone jumps off the building and glide while following Levi through the buildings. When they were forming up, Colossus once again shots another massive fireball onto the North Gate. It resists but heat is already damaging the structure. Cracks began to form in the shiny white stone material that was used to hide the alien-like structure.

"Shit!" Levi yells angry. "What do those brats want?"

Coming up on Levi's right, Erwin replies unsurely, "Invade the Walls perhaps?"

"No! This is only a distraction. If they wanted that they could have done it in a snap!"

"How do you know that?!" The General - gliding on his left side - asked very worried.

"Because I know I can do that!"

Everyone shocked by that statement, some almost had an accident because of their sudden distraction. 'Did they have that kind power on their side all this time?' the soldiers thought in bewilderment.

After a second of silence, Erwin let out, "what the fuck?!"

"Ah hahaha! I didn't tell you everything Eyebrows" he says mocking him. But then, Levi replied more seriously, "Actually I can't...it's in the 'contract' I made with the dude that transformed me into this."

If they weren't gliding, they all would be staring at him with a face that 'what the hell?' could be read from it.

They continue gliding following the streets in the direction of Colossus. Shiganshina does not have too many tall buildings, making them easier targets for the other Titans. Despite that, those Titans weren't attacking them, just following with their eyes.

After processes that information, many soldiers realized that Levi could take care of that Titans alone. Mike gets incredulous about that and questions him angrily, "If you're that strong, why did you call us anyway? Was it just for the train? Could you just took care of them yourself?"

Levi takes a few seconds to think in what to reply, "It's true, I can take care of them myself, but not with people arou-" He's interrupted by another fireball from Colossus that hits the north gate, opening larger cracks on it.

After it, they can hear Armored roaring loud. The Titans weighted steps could also be heard coming in their direction.

"Shit!" Levi shouts angry, and he then starts to speak faster, "No, it wasn't just for the train. Look around smartass! The city still has energy! That means the Garrison's public cameras are still working!"

Every media was broadcasting the images through the Garrison Troops' official site; through their cameras posted around the city. All sent to the security control department at the Garrisons' Headquarters; currently located at the north of Wall Rose. Not only was it showing on their site, but the video appeared on other live internet channels, social media, and even on the giant street screens of the most technological cities. All of humanity is focused on the events happening inside Shiganshina.

"Everyone is watching us. You're welcome." Levi yells with a derogative tone.

Once again a massive fireball hit the gate, the cracking of the stone echoed loudly that everyone inside and outside of the city can hear it.

"Okay... he has a two minutes cooldown to use the fireball and third seconds to charge." Levi states.

"What's your plan?" Erwin asks in a hurry. "You know how hybrids work and we don't have a single clue."

"Shape Shifters"

"What?"

"The correct name is 'Shape Shifter.' Anyway, I need a group to look after the two brats and other to kick the shit out of the large sausage and stone brain. I will let you guys decide yourselves."

"Understood!" The General shouts fiercely.

"Call me on the communicator when done! But be quick!" He then screeches loud and flies up very fast to the height of the Walls.

Up there, he's surrounded by a white light - the same that hid and returned his clothes early - and, as he spins his body, returns to normal but now he has the horns of his Titan, huge black wings on his back. His shirt and the Wings didn't return, which gave him free mobility to his new wings.

He's surrounded by a strong electromagnet field that fills the area around him with many bolts of electricity crackling furiously. His comrades' equipment did not shut down since he's too far away.

He dives in the direction of Colossus, who had already spotted him, roaring loud and summoning furious flashes of lightning in the sky up high. Colossus roars loud in reply, intensifying his flames.


End file.
